


Euphrosynia's Jäger

by khilari



Category: Girl Genius
Genre: Gen, Tragedy, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-20
Updated: 2013-06-27
Packaged: 2017-11-26 03:44:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 34,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/646182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/khilari/pseuds/khilari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A slice of the other side of the Storm King's legend. Maxim takes the Jägerdraught to become one of Euphrosynia's personal guard. Otilia, made to serve the Storm King, has less choice. As Sparks and Kings clash, the constructs and clanks also have their tale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

‘I heard hyu got offered de Jägerbrau,’ Ognian said, throwing an arm over Maxim’s shoulder. The bar they were in was mostly a human one, which meant Ognian was getting looks, but not hostile ones. Slightly worried ones from the barman, Jägers had a reputation for collateral damage, but they were well enough liked around Mechanicsburg as a rule.

‘Yah. Lady Euphrosynia vants to make her own guard,’ Maxim answered.

Ognian grinned and slid into place next to him. ‘So hyu gets to serve de pretty girl. Hyu has all de luck.’

‘Let’s hope so.’ Being offered Jägerdraught was an honour. It was just usually a fatal one. Maxim wasn’t about to turn it down, but he had no illusions about his chances.

Ognian grinned impressively and punched his shoulder with what would have seemed a disregard for human frailty if Maxim hadn’t been aware real carelessness would snap bones. It still nearly knocked him off his stool. ‘Hyu vill be fine,’ Ognian said. ‘It vill be goot not to have to be careful vit hyu.’

Maxim shoved him, and he didn’t hold back. There was no point when you were a human around Jägers. ‘Hyu’ve never been careful in your life.’

‘Hyu vill find out soon,’ said Ognian.

Maxim snorted and looked at his empty glass. ‘You vant a drink?’ he asked.

‘Thenk hyu.’

Maxim walked over to the bar to get the round. After the barman slid the two mugs of beer across the counter he asked, ‘He’s not gonna break anything?’

‘They don’t just start breaking tings,’ Maxim answered, rolling his eyes. ‘He’s de only Jäger here, he’s not gonna fight himself.’

He’d be on the other side of questions like that soon, he supposed. Even in Mechanicsburg people could be stupid about constructs. The Jägers were respected as one of the things that made the town safe and prosperous for the people inside it, but having one as a best friend was still a bit unusual. About to get a whole lot less unusual, in his case.

He handed Ognian a beer and sat down again, looking at his own without drinking for a few moments. ‘Zo, what iz it like?’

‘De beer?’

‘Idiot. De Jägerdraught.’

‘Oh.’ Ognian looked up at the sky thoughtfully, as if it might help. ‘Scary und it hurts a lot. Then hyu is better than effer.’

‘Oh, you is a lot of help.’

Oggie looked at him thoughtfully. ‘Vould it change hyu mind, whatever I say?’

That was a good question. Maxim knew the odds of death, or worse, already. He knew that the Heterodynes were serious about only taking people who volunteered — sensible when you were making indestructible soldiers, to not make ones that would resent you — and that he wouldn’t be in trouble if he did refuse. But refusing was still…almost unthinkable. It was too big a thing to back down from, to _nearly_ have. Besides, a Heterodyne had chosen him, wanted him to do this, and to any native of Mechanicsburg that had a force of its own. ‘No.’

‘Den it doesn’t matter.’

‘I guess not.’ It was reassuring, in a way, to think of it like that, as a choice already made. It made it more like going into battle; it wasn’t that it wouldn’t be that bad, it was that however bad it was there was no point in thinking about it beforehand, and afterwards — one way or another — it would be over.

*

There was no real need for the ceremony to take place in the Great Movement Chamber, except perhaps to give Maxim a very good idea of what exactly he was agreeing to swallow. The whole place glowed blue and electric with the power of the Dyne, wheels creaking as the Castle greedily drank the energy away. It was enough to make him hesitate in the doorway, not so much because of second thoughts as out of sheer awe.

‘Scared?’ asked someone, sounding both close by and very far away, and far too amused.

Maxim jumped, looking around for the source of it. ‘Where are hyu?’

‘Allow me to introduce myself. I am Castle Heterodyne. I look forward to seeing if you die interestingly.’

Maxim shivered. ‘I vasn’t planning on it.’

‘Castle, don’t tease the candidates.’ Euphrosynia walked over. She was wearing a white dress, which looked blue in the light here, and for once not wearing a canvas apron bulging with tools. She smiled at him, surprisingly welcoming, as if he was a guest here. ‘This way.’

There was a table, covered with a white cloth, and on it a glass of something the colour of swamp water and shining like sunlight. Maxim stared at it, wondering what it tasted like, what it did. Something seemed to be moving inside it, the dingy colours shifting to some rhythm of their own. Euphrosynia stood beside it. ‘Recite the Jägertroth,’ she said, the note of command in her voice snapping Maxim back to reality. He knelt smoothly, and began the oath which bound the most feared army of constructs in Europe. In reality, it was incredibly simple.

‘I svear to protect all members of de house of Heterodyne, to keep its secrets, and to serve it loyally. Alvays, so long as I haff life.’

Euphrosynia stepped forwards, holding out the glass of Jägerdraught. Maxim took it carefully and found himself staring again, not so much at the draught as at his own hand holding the glass as if he needed to memorise it. He took a deep breath, told himself he’d been in battles with worse odds than this, and tossed the Jägerdraught back like a shot of vodka just to get it over with.

The pain was unimaginable, and for an endless moment was all he could think about, then it subsided just enough for him to feel all the smaller pains that made it up. Every muscle cramping and stretching at once. His fingernails being ripped off by the claws growing underneath. The feeling that someone had hit both ears with a large hammer. Violent nausea that was, nonetheless, not bringing anything up.

When it faded he found himself still kneeling and was vaguely surprised that he hadn’t fallen over. He ached all over, and the world appeared grey and wavery. Euphrosynia, who was for some reason the only clear thing in his vision, was looking down at him with a mixture of sympathy and naked curiosity that was frankly terrifying. When he managed to lift his head to look back at her she broke into a delighted smile.

‘It _worked_.’

She smelled good. Like water in a desert, maybe. Good. Necessary. He was glad to have pleased her, even if it was only by not dying. Thoughts were sparking like flashes of lightning lighting up a room but leaving long moments of darkness in between. He tried to talk and had to spit blood first. ‘…Mistress?’ It was pleading, a request for…something.

She surprised him by bending down and stroking a lock of hair back behind his ear. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘It’s over. Rest.’

He closed his eyes and finally let himself fall.

*

Maxim woke up, in a bed somewhere. The place smelled of herbs, linen, wool blankets, Jäger, something acrid.

‘So, hyu is awake,’ said someone, and he opened his eyes to find another Jäger leaning over him.

‘Mamma Gkika? I thot you run a bar.’

‘Dot’s de bit humans are allowed in, sveethot. You effer bring humans into dis bit you better haff a dem good reason.’

Humans. Of course. He wasn’t one any more. ‘Iz dis a hospital?’

‘Sometimes it iz a hospital. Right now iz more of a _nursery_.’ She shook her head. ‘Hyu is staying here until de change is finished vit hyu.’

Maxim looked down at his hands, there were definitely claws there. He tried running a hand over his face experimentally, nothing felt different. His ears were pointed though, and twitched when he touched them. ‘Vot else vill happen?’

‘Hyu teeth vill come through in de next few days. Don’t chew de bedposts.’ He gave her an incredulous look and she rolled her eyes. ‘Seriously. Dey is goot bedposts. No chewing. Hyu is allowed to bite visitors, but dey is allowed to bite beck.’ She grinned at him, displaying her own teeth. ‘And hyu body vill recover from changing zo fast. Drink dis.’

Maxim took the cup obediently. It tasted awful, felt like having a stomach full of boiling wax, and a moment later everything ached a whole lot less. ‘Und dot vas?’

‘Battledraught. Iz goot for Jägers.’

Over the next few days Maxim’s teeth did come in — and the experience of having a mouth full of shark teeth come through at once convinced him Mamma Gkika had been serious about people teething on the bedposts. Ognian came to visit several times and frequently got snapped at — once literally — although he seemed to take it in stride and didn’t take advantage of the policy on allowing guests to bite back.

Some things about being a Jäger weren’t surprising. Maxim had served alongside them long enough not to be surprised that bugs were now delicious; he was a bit more surprised that everything vaguely digestible was now delicious, but considering what soldiers sometimes had to eat on campaign had to admit it was at least as practical a change as the claws. Especially since he seemed to be hungry all the time.

At the point where he went from ready to chew on the bedposts to make his gums stop hurting to ready to chew on them out of sheer boredom he was given his uniform — which now colour co-ordinated with him nicely — and allowed through into the familiar bar. Where he discovered a facet of being a Jäger that really _shouldn’t_ have surprised him.

The Jägers he knew had always had a sort of family air to them — albeit a large, noisy and frequently violent family — and as Ognian’s friend and a comrade in arms he’d been on the edge of that. _Now_ he was suddenly everyone’s newest little brother. Which meant greetings, advice and endless teasing from every Jäger in the bar.

At some point a barfight started, and as a human he would have stayed a long way away from a bunch of Jägers in a violent mood. Today —today the violent mood seemed to be catching, the air smelling of it, and why not? He was a Jäger. It wasn’t long before he found out that a new Jäger still getting used to his body was no match for old ones, but it was still _fun_ , in a slightly manic way that left him feeling all his senses had been turned up. He stopped at one point to lick blood from already healing scratches and only realised afterwards that shouldn’t have felt natural. Except, of course, it should.

At the end of the evening he returned to the part of Mamma Gkika’s behind the bar and got a long look from her before she grinned. ‘Hyu iz only a leedle scratched. Vell done. Zo, how iz hyu finding being a Jäger?’

‘…It is a leedle like being drunk,’ he said carefully. ‘Everyting seems like such a goot idea.’

‘Ho! Goot answer. Try to remember dot it sometimes izn’t and hyu may not vind up beck here all de time.’

‘Hy am leaving?’ Maxim asked hopefully.

‘Tomorrow. For now hyu is getting some sleep,’ said Mamma Gkika, pointing to the bed before sweeping out.


	2. Chapter 2

Getting out of the hospital didn’t mean going straight back to active duty. The first time Maxim picked up his sword it felt like it had been replaced by a piece of straw, and all his moves went wild as he instinctively treated it as heavy when it no longer was. So, training. Going out into town felt almost like a type of training too; he’d always thought Jägers easily distracted, but when you could smell everything that had happened in the last few hours and hear things from the next street concentrating was a lost cause.

It was after an (extremely one-sided) sparring session with Ognian, that Ognian annouced, ‘My battalion is movink out tomorrow.’ He grinned. ‘Mebbe hyu’ll be able to hit me be de time I get beck.’

‘Oh, shot op.’ Maxim leant back against the wall. ‘Vhere is hyu going?’

Ognian shrugged. ‘Towards France? He is gettink further avay all de time.’

‘Heh. Hyu don’t even know vhat is between here and France.’

‘Hy do. An army.’

Which was irrefutable, and since Maxim was less than clear on where the army actually was too they left it there.

The battalion Ognian’s was replacing returned a few days later, with stories that made it sound like Valois was weakening and the war would be over disappointingly soon. ‘Dere is alvays plenty of new enemies,’ another Jäger told Maxim reassuringly.

Then, a few weeks later, different news came back. There had been an ambush. Two dozen Jägers were missing, Ognian among them. The mood turned darker, there were stories. Jäger physiology was a secret of the Heterodynes, but a lot of Sparks who wanted their own army of supersoldiers would like to know it. Jägers had been captured in the past, they said, vivisected. Killed and revived repeatedly. Bits cut off to see if they could figure out how the Heterodynes regrew them.

Maxim snagged Mamma Gkika’s arm as she walked past. ‘Mamma? Vot dey is saying…’

‘It happened,’ she said briskly, as if she’d said this a few times already tonight. ‘It iz not happening now. Ognian vill be beck soon enuff.’

‘Hyu is sure?’

‘Dot Andronicus vants pipple scared of us. Und ve is not so scary all cut up und bleeding, zo he vill keep dem healthy.’

‘Shouldn’t he vant pipple scared of him?’

‘Iz political. Dot vun tinks he is a schmott guy.’ She picked up a few glasses and added. ‘Ognian vill be fine. Nottink to vorry about.’

Since she had at least four hundred years on him, Maxim was inclined to think she’d been around long enough to know what she was talking about. It was still a great relief when Ognian returned three weeks after that, along with the rest of the captured Jägers. Maxim managed to grab him — in the middle of a crowd of other Jägers also trying to grab friends and welcome them home, and making the area around the gate extremely hazardous to humans trying to get in and out. Ognian hugged him, looking tired but cheerful. He smelt of old smoke and blood — human blood, not Jäger.

‘Vot happened?’ he asked.

‘Ve was put in cages, den ve escaped und set fire to tings,’ said Ognian, he scowled. ‘Den Jenka turned up und made us schtop. Dimo said she vas right, too.’

‘Dere is no point in escaping if ve just get rounded straight beck op,’ said a green Jäger with luminous eyes. He held out a hand to Maxim. ‘Dimo.’

‘Maxim,’ Maxim answered. ‘How did hyu escape?’

‘Somevun forgot to lock de door,’ said Dimo.

‘Huh,’ said Maxim. ‘Lucky.’

‘Eediots.’ A white haired Jäger — a female one, and Maxim had been kind of assuming Mamma Gkika was the only one, but Ognian had just mentioned someone called Jenka — was watching them with her arms folded. Her expression was hidden by a scarf. ‘Did not forget. Let hyu out.’

Maxim blinked. ‘…Is dis about vanting pipple scared of uz?’ he asked tentatively.

‘Hmph. Yes.’ Jenka nodded towards the town. ‘Hy go to report.’

‘Vat about vanting pipple scared of uz?’ Ognian asked.

‘Iz politickal,’ said Maxim, because it was that or admit he didn’t have a clue either.

*

With the return of their missing comrades the mood among the Jägers swung back to the usual lighthearted violence, and if the Generals seemed to have something on their minds when they visited most Jägers weren’t worried about it. It was the job of the Generals to have things on their minds, after all.

Then, one evening, there was a new Jäger in the bar. Golden furred, with blue hands and face and inkdrop eyes. And he was _new_ , not just back from somewhere, carrying himself slightly awkwardly.

‘Vun of Miz Euphrosynia’s?’ Ognian asked, gesturing at him.

‘Hy guess,’ Maxim answered, turning to watch the new Jäger snarl at one of the waitresses as she handed him a beer. ‘In a bad mood.’

Ognian shrugged. ‘Not dot unusual. Sometimes de change hits dem hard. Dey get over it.’

The new Jäger paused to growl at someone in his way, and then suddenly swiped their hat onto the floor. Maxim put his drink down, things were about to get _lively_.

It wasn’t a normal barfight. A normal barfight for Jägers was everyone fighting each other, this was the whole bar fighting one person who, despite being very newly made a Jäger, was apparently invincible. Or, no, the reason for that was that no one wanted to hurt him more than could be healed, but he was apparently uncaring of how much damage he did to anyone else. He hadn’t managed much yet (the scent of blood was in the air, but not much and not deep).

Maxim shouldered, and sometimes clawed, his way through the crowd out of a vague sense of responsibility towards someone who was going to be part of the same guard as him, mixed with the instinctive desire to get involved in a fight. There was suddenly a much stronger smell of blood, deeper. Someone had been cut, not just scratched. The mood was changing, becoming not darker so much as more intense.

‘He’s gun be in trouble,’ Maxim said.

‘Vell, _yes_ ,’ said Ognian, pushing past a few other Jägers to catch up with him. ‘Ve help him out.’ And with that he darted ahead with the carefree recklessness that he usually showed in pursuit of a bright idea. Maxim followed, suddenly grateful that he was a Jäger this time and wasn’t about to follow Ognian into trouble only one of them was invulnerable to. Even if this had kind of been his idea in the first place.

The new Jäger was standing with his back to the wall, a steak knife held in front of him. The pieces of a table were scattered around him and he was smiling, or at least showing all his teeth. At least, that was what could be seen in glimpses, before he was eclipsed by Jägers grabbing at his wrists. So far he seemed to be dodging, clinging to the steak knife even as the fur on his arms soaked with blood from scratches.

Ognian stepped out of the crowd, pushing aside the Jäger who had been about pounce and who had not been expecting an attack from the side, and grinned, ‘Hello! Ken ve be on hyu side?’

The new Jäger stared at him in bafflement for a moment, then his gaze flicked to Ognian’s neck. Maxim tensed, ready to jump in, and then suddenly the new Jäger’s hand flew back and the steak knife dropped. A small knife through his wrist was pinning it to the wall.

Dimo stepped around the bar and picked up the steak knife, handing it back to someone behind him, then pulled out the throwing knife as well. ‘No veapons in de bar,’ he said.

‘ _Hyu_ just —’ began the new Jäger.

‘Special circumstances,’ said Dimo, with a grin that looked both friendly and like the new Jäger wasn’t going to get far arguing with it.

He turned on Ognian instead. ‘And hyu.’

‘Hy didn’t,’ protested Ognian spreading his hands. Maxim wondered what exactly he had done, and what he had intended. But this was Ognian, cheerful lack of common sense wasn’t something that required an explanation. Was it? ‘My friend vas worried. Hy thot ve could help hyu out.’ Now the new Jäger was looking past him at Maxim, and actually looking a bit calmer.

‘Hyu iz Euphrosynia’s?’ Maxim asked.

The new Jäger nodded. ‘Vali,’ he said. ‘Hyu?’

‘Maxim. Hy is hers too.’ The Jägers were drifting away from them, now the fight was over, except for Ognian. ‘Hyu all right?’

Vali flexed his fingers, and then his whole hand. Blood dripped from his wrist, but everything worked. ‘Hy think.’

‘Vant a drink?’

Vali grinned, and this time there was actually some humour in it. ‘Vy not?’

Apparently Vali’s injuries passed muster, because he showed up at the Jägerhall the next day, meaning Maxim finally had a sparring partner he could hit. The third and last of Euphrosynia’s Jägers arrived a few weeks after that. Fane, who had wound up huge and grey, with curled ram’s horns and two fingers on each hand, had a long recuperation after the Jägerdraught but on arrival among the other Jägers proved morose rather than violent. It cheered him up somewhat that the other Jägers regarded the more major changes to his body as bonuses, but getting used to his new body was hard on him.

A surprisingly short time after _that_ Jenka arrived to tell them they were on duty. ‘Iz just being decorative. No threats in de Kestle,’ she told them, which was insulting but turned out to be pretty much true. Euphrosynia liked to have one of them on hand to listen to anything she wanted to talk about, capture any of her constructs that escaped, and occasionally serve as a test subject if she wanted someone more robust than the minions. Despite all three of them taking offense at Jenka’s evaluation it was probably just as well — by Jäger standards they were newborn and half trained and Euphrosynia hadn’t brought any of the older ones into her guard. But by the time they were actually needed to do more than grab rogue chimerae they intended to be able to do it.


	3. Chapter 3

The meeting between Clemethius, Bludtharst and Euphrosynia was of enough interest to the Jägers that about a dozen of them, including all three of Euphrosynia’s, had gravitated to waiting outside for news of what was decided. Since they were neither on duty nor allowed in they were hanging around outside drinking beer and chatting when little Gradok Heterodyne arrived, holding a bowl in one hand and a clay pipe in the other.

‘Watch this,’ he said, then dipped the pipe and blew a long stream of soap bubbles. Some of the Jägers clapped and he grinned at them. ‘Now bring me one back,’ he said. At five years old he wasn’t exactly someone the Jägers _had_ to obey, but he was a Heterodyne and they tended to humour him. Besides, the bubbles did look sort of tempting floating around the room.

Which was why Euphrosynia exited the meeting to find both floor and Jägers splattered with soap and Gradok giggling almost too hard to blow. ‘What are you doing?’ she asked, smiling herself.

‘They’re going to bring me a bubble,’ said Gradok, before blowing another stream.

Euphrosynia looked up at the bubbles, an almost dreamy look in her eyes, and then reached up and lightly caught one between her fingers, lowering to to Gradok’s eye level. ‘Do I win?’ she asked.

Gradok gave her an awed look and nodded. Then the bubble shivered and popped as the door opening again caused a breeze. Clemethius and Bludtharst stepped out, clearly having been in the middle of a conversation. ‘I see your troops intend a headstart on the gossip,’ said Clemethius.

Bludtharst laughed. ‘Some of these are Euphrosynia’s,’ he said. ‘And I think Gradok just co-opted all of them,’ he added, ruffling his little brother’s hair.

‘They’ll hardly get that much of a headstart,’ said Euphrosynia. ‘Bludtharst was on his way to tell the Generals as it was, and I was planning on talking to my three.’

‘True,’ said Clemethius. ‘You two go and inform the troops, then. While I get Gradok back to his nurse.’

‘Can I show you my soap bubbles on the way?’ asked Gradok.

Clemethius put a hand on his shoulder and started walking them down the corridor. ‘Of course.’

‘Come on,’ Euphrosynia said, and Maxim, Fane and Vali fell into step behind her. She waited until they were back at her rooms to add, ‘Things are about to get interesting. Andronicus has managed to convince most of Europe to join with him in order to fight us.’

‘Oh, so _dot’s_ vhy he vanted everyone to be scared of uz!’ said Maxim.

Euphrosynia’s lips twitched. ‘Yes, that would be it,’ she said. ‘They’re going to build a keep up in Balan’s Gap.’

‘Ve are going to stop dem?’ asked Vali.

Euphrosynia smiled. ‘Bludtharst is certainly going to _try_. We’ll see if he succeeds.’

‘Und hyu has a plan?’ Maxim asked.

‘Not yet. For now Bludtharst gets to have his fun, and I get to be the support. One plan at a time.’ She grinned. ‘And doing it Bludtharst’s way means I get to see the battlefield.’

*

Euphrosynia’s tent was made of nyar spider silk and resembled a jellyfish — domed and white with tentacles, in this case metal ones, around the bottom. It took a while for the minions to set up and then they went to armour mammoths while Euphrosynia activated it. The tentacles stiffened as they were turned on, sticking out like spikes from a sea urchin, and then lashed at the three Jägers waiting nearby, making them jump back.

‘Hoy!’ called Vali. ‘It attacks _uz?_

‘I’m working on it!’ Euphrosynia called from inside. ‘Right now it attacks everyone, but you’re fast enough to dodge.’

They looked at each other and then shrugged and jumped forward, ducking and weaving for a bit until they pushed through the doorflap. Inside was half hospital, half laboratory, with the two intermixing at the midway point with tables with straps and some rather disturbing looking instruments. A couple of minions were sorting equipment onto benches.

Euphrosynia looked up from the control panel by the wall. ‘Right. We’re set up. Wounded Jägers and dead enemies will be brought to us throughout the battle. Your job is to get them in here, and to keep the area around us clear.’ She pushed a lock of hair that had escaped from her braid out of her face. ‘It shouldn’t be hard, we’re back behind our own lines by quite a way, but we might be targeted by anything that gets through. Stay _close_ , even if it seems like nothing’s happening I need you here when it does. Don’t wander off towards the fighting.’

‘Yes, mistress,’ they chorused, Maxim feeling slightly indignant. Just because they were new Jägers didn’t mean they’d never seen a battlefield before. They were still trained soldiers.

‘Good,’ she said. The sound of a trumpet rang out, sounding the advance. ‘Take your positions.’

Their positions were outside the tent, just beyond the reach of the tentacles, and spaced evenly around it. An armoured mammoth walked past, ears flapping nervously.

‘I heard dey vas making horse sized mammoths, now,’ said Vali, conversationally but loudly enough to carry around the tent.

‘Don’t know vhy,’ Maxim answered. ‘De only thing dey’s goot for is being big. Could stick spikes on a horse if dey just vant tings with tusks.’

‘Mammoths is schmott,’ said Fane. ‘Can use weapons.’

‘Yah, und if someone cuts their trunk, dey run off screaming,’ said Maxim. ‘Should be breeding braver vuns, not smaller.’

‘Goot point,’ said Vali.

‘Listen,’ said Fane.

The battle was joined now, even though things were quiet around them they could hear it from further down the pass. Hoofbeats, the clash of weapons, screams and shouts and every so often, rising joyfully above everything else, the cry of, ‘Ve hunt!’ All three of them stayed silent now, feeling the battlefield open up around them.

A soft whirring sound overhead made them look up. A group of hippogriffs was flying overhead, steel grey bodies and charcoal feathers. Like most of the creations of Valois’ Sparks they were pretty, long elegant tails floating behind them, and huge curled crests of lighter feathers capping their heads.

‘Now _dot’s_ more useful then leedle mammoths,’ Maxim said.

The hippogriffs turned in the air, left wings dipping, a path that would take them right over the hospital tent.

‘Bombs!’ Vali shouted. ‘Fane, throw me.’

Fane and Maxim both ran around the tent, converging on Vali. Fane stooped as soon as they were in sight of one another and cupped his hands as if he was about to boost Vali over a wall. Vali stepped into it and Fane stood up, swinging his hands above his head in a motion that sent Vali flying towards the hippogriffs overhead. One squawked in alarm.

‘Und me,’ Maxim said, even as Fane stooped again. He stepped into Fane’s hands and the next moment he was flying.

It was the sort of thing to make someone delight in being a Jäger just because a human doing this would shortly be a dead one. The hippogriffs were breaking formation, trying to get away, but he had enough momentum to swing around in the air and catch at one’s wing. The rider turned, aiming a dagger at Maxim’s hands. Unable to reach his sword, he hoisted himself high enough to bite at the rider’s wrist and felt his teeth shear through bone.

The rider clutched at his wrist, swearing in French, while Maxim took advantage of the distraction to swing himself up astride the hippogriff’s neck and draw his sword. A bag of bombs was indeed tied to the hippogriff’s saddle, but no one had managed to arm any while under attack. Something grabbed him from behind and swung him out over empty air again; he looked up to find himself dangling from the hippogriff’s beak. It looked very annoyed. He just had time to realise that, Jäger or not, he was going to wind up with broken bones at best before it let go.

Something grabbed him again, this time around the waist, before he’d fallen very far at all, and he found himself being held upside-down by one of the Heterodyne flying clanks, which rather resembled squids with propellers. The co-pilot gave him a rather baffled look. ‘What is a Jäger doing up here?’

‘Fightink?’ It seemed kind of obvious.

‘Oh good grief,’ muttered the pilot. ‘Are there _more_ of you.’

‘Chust Vali.’ Maxim twisted around to see if he could catch sight of Vali, and noticed him jump from a rapidly falling hippogrif onto another clank. ‘Oh, goot. Somevun got him.’

‘It didn’t occur to you to leave fighting in the air to the _aerial_ troops?’ snapped the co-pilot.

‘Dey gots bombs, und hyu vas preedy late,’ Maxim told him, folding his arms.

‘We didn’t even know they had hippogriffs! We were expecting those knight clanks, not airborne cavalry,’ said the co-pilot, then apparently realised this wasn’t doing his argument any good. The tentacle flipped Maxim the right way up and dropped him into a seat. ‘Fine. But we’re here now so _please_ stay on the ground.’

Once the hippogriffs were dealt with both Jägers were delivered back to Euphrosynia’s tent where Fane greeted them by throwing their hats at them. Maxim pounced on his, realising that it wasn’t surprising he’d lost it while being hung upside-down, and quickly checked it for damage. ‘Thenk hyu.’

‘Not de best plan,’ Fane said.

‘De Mistress didn’t get bombed,’ Vali protested, putting his own hat back on. ‘Zo, not de vorst plan either.’

‘Beck to positions,’ said Maxim. The other two nodded and they moved to their stations again, waiting for the next threat to appear.

*

A sharp whistle from inside the tent was a call for one of them to get in there. As the closest to the entrance Maxim ducked in, dodging tentacles without even thinking about it, and found Euphrosynia in the laboratory half bending over a construct. It was a ragged thing, looking like it had been put together quickly, a few extra arms stitched almost randomly onto the ribcage. All its wrists and ankles were tied together with rope, leaving it looking like a curled up spider on the bench. It was snarling, throwing its head back and forth, eyes wide and rolling.

‘Take that and point it at some enemy troops,’ Euphrosynia said, already moving on to another bench, pulling out a new spool of thread.

‘Ken it think?’ Maxim asked, regarding the creature. It looked dead still. It _smelled_ dead. Other constructs didn’t.

‘Of course not,’ said Euphrosynia. ‘If it could think it wouldn’t attack its own side just because it was pointed at them.’ She waved a hand at the exit to the tent.

Maxim lifted it up by the rope binding its wrists and slung it over his shoulder, where it promptly bit him. He adjusted it so it wouldn’t be chewing him the whole way and left.

He released it as soon as he found some infantry to shove it towards, rather doubting that it would do that much damage. Shrieks of horror made him glance back for a moment — oh, right, that was probably more the point of it, to freak the enemy out at being attacked by their own dead.

‘Hey! A Jäger!’

The cry came from behind him, and Maxim turned to find a small group of cavalry, around a dozen men, between him and his own encampment, swords drawn. Oh, this would be fun. He grinned at them, drawing his own sword. ‘Hyu schmell _scared_.’

They didn’t waste time answering, just charged. He jumped, easily landing on top of one of the horses, which predictably freaked out. He put a sword through its rider and jumped for the next one. This one saw it coming and managed to turn slightly, and get his sword up. It sliced into the top of Maxim’s leg as he landed, and he yelped before slicing through that one’s throat as well. For the next one he landed on the ground and killed the horse first, giving himself more space to get at the rider.

The remaining men turned and fled. He chased. Later he would realise this had been stupid. A lone soldier, even a Jäger, should not run _towards_ the enemy’s camp. Besides which he had an actual _post_ he was meant to be getting back to. But right then there was prey, it was running, and he wanted to _hunt_.

Blood. Fear. Humans. Horses. The same smells all around him, but he had the trail of his prey even so. Loping after them, intent on the chase, he stumbled over something. Blood smell, human, more prey, already down. Wounded, easy. Trilobite sigil on shoulder.

Maxim blinked and pushed his hair back. In front of him was a downed soldier, a young man with dark hair, a wound in his side oozing blood through his hands as he pressed on it. He was gazing at Maxim wide eyed, instinctively sensing the predatory intent and scared by it, but rationally knowing they were on the same side.

Maxim glanced away, looking for the flag that would signify the human hospital tent, feeling vaguely horrified at himself although nowhere near as much as he probably should be. The tents for their side were further away than he expected. ‘Hy beg hyu pardon. Vill giff hyu a hand to der tent.’ He swung the soldier into his arms without waiting for an answer, no longer surprised by how easy it was to carry someone, and set off back for their own camp. The soldier stiffened in surprise but didn’t protest.

The human hospital tent had a lot more patients in it than the Jäger one. It smelled sour with pain and fear. Maxim put the soldier down on an empty cot and a nurse came over at once. To his surprise another one called after him as he turned to go. When he turned back inquiringly, she rather nervously said, ‘You’re hurt too, your leg, we should look at that.’

Maxim glanced down. The wound was still oozing blood, he must have been moving around too much for it to close up. ‘Iz fine,’ he said.

‘But,’ she began.

‘Jägers only let Heterodynes work on them,’ said another voice. A young man, light brown hair caught back in a scruffy pony tail, was watching them. ‘It probably is fine, they heal fast.’ He added, to Maxim, ‘All the same, sitting down and letting it close up would probably be a good idea.’

‘Mebbe.’ It actually did hurt, now he was thinking about it. The man turned and walked back to the back of the hospital, to a laboratory set up there. Smaller than Euphrosynia’s, but somehow neater. Maxim followed, as much out of curiosity as to get out of the way of the nurses, and sat down on a stool in lab. The man was fussing about with some equipment by an empty bench. ‘Hyu know about Jägers?’ Maxim asked, by way of making conversation mostly.

‘Hearsay,’ answered the man. ‘You’re the first one I’ve seen up close, actually. I’m rather new to working with the Heterodynes.’

‘Vell, hyu got vun of der goot looking vuns. Und hyu got hyu hearsay right too.’

The man smiled, very slightly. ‘Good to know,’ he said. It made him sound like Euphrosynia for a moment, laughing at Maxim a little on the inside but not unkind about it.

Maxim grinned at him. ‘Ve ken alvays use more schmott guys like hyu,’ he said.

‘We’ve got one!’ called a nurse. A moment later a recently dead soldier in Heterodyne uniform was carried over and dropped on the bench. The Spark started to hook him up at once.

‘Hyu is making constructs from hyu own pipple?’ Maxim demanded, not at all sure he liked the idea.

‘Aren’t _you_ a construct?’ said the Spark, hastily checking something.

‘Hy volunteered! Und dot’s different.’

‘Yes, it is. I am _attempting_ to bring these people back as they were, something I doubt any of them would object to. An endeavour that will go better if you _stay quiet_.’

Maxim obediently stayed quiet while the Spark finished connecting the corpse to the wires and flipped a switch. The corpse convulsed but that was all, and successive shocks got no more response. When the air started to smell of burnt flesh the Spark made a sound that managed to be half sigh and half growl and waved to some minions to take the corpse away.

‘It don’t vork too goot?’ Maxim asked.

‘Not nearly as well as it _should,_ theoretically,’ said the Spark. ‘I’m still refining my technique, but I should have more of a success rate than I’m getting. Maybe if I modify the galvanic connectors…’

Maxim stopped listening at that point, on the basis that he wasn’t going to understand any of it anyway. He ran a hand over his leg and found the blood there was dry and the wound closed. Since interrupting a Spark in the madness place was usually a bad idea he left without saying goodbye.

*

It took Maxim longer to clean up after the battle than the others because he had to wash dried blood out of his hair. When he emerged and returned to the hospital tent Euphrosynia was standing outside it between two inactive tentacles, wearing a ruffled blue dress while sipping from a glass of white wine, and looking entirely like someone had painted her onto the wrong background. She smiled at him, before returning to gazing over the battlefield. ‘That went well, I think,’ she said.

‘Vas fon,’ Maxim said. ‘Deed it though?’

‘Our part did.’ Which meant the rest of it hadn’t, and she didn’t really care. Bludtharst would though. ‘I think I can make those constructs more durable, tomorrow,’ she added.

‘Somevun else vas ressurecting our pipple,’ Maxim told her, remembering. ‘Not vell, though.’

‘It’s hard to bring minds back consistently,’ she answered, absently. ‘Death trauma. Doing it on a battlefield at all is rather impressive.’ She drained her glass of wine and ducked inside to put it down on something. ‘I think I’d like to meet him. Show me the way.’

The camp had an almost drowsy feeling after the battle. Soldiers sitting around with drinks, or mending uniforms in the treacly light of early evening. Euphrosynia got saluted by everyone she passed and took it as her due. Inside the hospital tent, when they reached it, the patients were nearly all asleep. Several of them were drugged, the air was heavy with the scent of poppy syrup. The Spark was still fiddling with the machines, although there were no corpses in evidence.

‘Hoy!’ Maxim called. ‘Schmott guy!’

The Spark looked up, looking annoyed at the interruption until he caught sight of Euphrosynia. He stared for a moment, then blushed and looked away suddenly. Maxim supposed she did have rather a startling effect, walking off the battlefield in her pretty dress.

‘Ah,’ said the Spark, aware he was blushing and flustered by it. ‘Welcome, my lady. Would I be right in thinking you are Euphrosynia Heterodyne?’

Euphrosynia smiled and dipped a curtsey — purely to fluster the Spark further, since she never did that at any other time. ‘You have the advantage of me.’

‘Haralamb Ogglespoon,’ the Spark said, bowing clumsily. ‘Forgive me,’ he added, sounding less like he was verbally tripping over his feet. ‘I was not expecting you. But I assure you you are very welcome.’

‘Thank you,’ said Euphrosynia. ‘I heard you were ressurecting people. Considering the limits of what equipment can be used in a tent I’m quite impressed.’

Ogglespoon sighed. ‘I expect your Jäger told you there’s little reason to be. Our success rate…’ He trailed off and pulled a face, then brightened up. ‘But you have some experience of ressurection yourself? Perhaps you wouldn’t mind looking at this array?’

Euphrosynia smiled, her face lighting up with it. ‘I would _love_ to.’


	4. Chapter 4

A small clank dragon with six claws and something very strange about its talons flew past. Before Maxim could register more than that it was followed by the patter of feet and Ognian swung around and grabbed the cheerful ten year old trying to follow it.

‘Hallo, Master Gradok,’ he said. ‘Isn’t hyu supposed to be in a cage?’

Gradok squirmed. His breakthrough had lead to dozens of mini flamethrowing wyvern clanks which had taken them a week to get out of the Castle, although Bludtharst was adapting them into bigger versions for use on the battlefield, and nineteen explosions. ‘I got bored,’ he said.

‘Ho, vell, dot is understandable,’ said Ognian.

Gradok nodded enthusiastically. ‘I was going to be back before anyone noticed, but my lockpicking dragon escaped. Can you get it back for me?’

Maxim heard a clinking sound and glanced up. The lockpicking dragon was hovering just below the ceiling, somehow contriving to look smug. ‘Vill it explode?’

Gradok shook his head. Maxim looked around the hallway, noted a couple of useful statues and nodded. ‘Hokay.’ He jumped onto the arm of one statue and then across the hall to push off the head of the other and dive at the hovering dragon. It moved aside with a flick of its wings and he couldn’t turn in midair fast enough to catch it, instead landing easily crouched in the centre of the corridor. ‘Iz fast,’ he said with some approval. ‘Vell made. Ognian?’

‘Yah. Hy drive it down dis time.’ Both of them were sliding slightly towards hunting mode. They hadn’t been doing anything interesting, and now there was prey, even if it wasn’t very dangerous (minus the possibility of explosions). Fun.

Ognian used his poleaxe to vault and then, when the dragon dodged, swung around the pole in midair and kicked the dragon hard in the middle. It squawked and tumbled down towards Maxim, who grabbed it around the middle pinning its wings. ‘Heh. Eazy.’ Its head swung around on its flexible neck, it glared at him with glass eyes that seemed to have something red behind them…he let go and ducked just in time to miss a very narrow jet of flame that partially melted a statue of Hexagonal Heterodyne. The dragon made a ‘Hmph’ sound and flew back up to the ceiling, looking down with apparent interest in what they would do next.

‘Hyu _said_ it vouldn’t explode!’ Maxim said.

‘It _doesn’t_ ,’ said Gradok. ‘But if it can’t pick the lock it has to have another way of opening it.’

‘Ve could grab its mouth?’ said Ognian.

‘Hyu can try dot if hyu vant. Be like grabbing de hot end of a flamethrower.’

‘Ve could use oven gloves?’

‘…Dot might vork.’

‘We’re going to the kitchens?’ said Gradok. ‘I’m hungry.’

‘Somevun has to keep an eye on dot,’ Ognian said, pointing at the dragon.

Gradok looked thoughtful. ‘It might follow us. I think it’s having fun.’

Maxim looked up at it, wondering how something with no expression was still managing to look so smug. ‘Ve find out, I guess.’

Gradok was the only one to actually enter the kitchen, on the grounds that little boys were better at being sneaky than Jägermonsters, but he made up for that assessment by returning with enough gingerbread for all three of them as well as the oven gloves. The lockpicking dragon was still hovering above them as they left the kitchen area and wandered back into the largely empty corridors licking crumbs from fingers and claws.

The dragon suddenly swerved from its place above them and darted through a door; they glanced at one another and gave chase, surprised to find themselves in an old storage room full of disassembled clanks. The dragon sped out as suddenly as it had flown in, swung the door shut and, a moment later, there was a decided ‘snick’.

‘It’s not meant to lock me _in_ places,’ Gradok protested.

Maxim sighed and folded his arms. ‘Oh, great. Now ve is gonna hafta bust down de door, and _den_ ve is gonna get in trouble.’

‘Not if dey don’t know it vaz uz,’ Ognian said, peering through the keyhole. ‘Dere is novun about.’

Maxim nodded. ‘Tree…two…vun.’ They hit the door hard enough to knock it off its hinges. The dragon, still near the ceiling, turned to look down at them with an expression of shock. Ognian vaulted at it before it could recover, kicking it hard enough that it didn’t even have time to tumble as it plummeted, and Maxim pulled the oven gloves on just in time to pounce as it hit the floor. He wound up kneeling on its wings and holding its head down with both hands.

‘We did it!’ said Gradok, delightedly.

‘Yah, but now vot?’ Maxim asked. ‘Vot should ve do vit it?’

‘I’ll deactivate it for now,’ said Gradok. ‘Don’t worry,’ he added to the dragon. ‘You work very well and I’ll turn you back on later. I just need a screwdriver.’

‘How about this one?’ said Euphrosynia. They all looked up to see her at the end of the corridor, rummaging in her apron pocket as she walked towards them, and then looked away with the guilty expressions of children and Jägermonsters who have not only done something they shouldn’t but been caught doing it.

Gradok took the screwdriver and fiddled about with the dragon until its eyes went dark with something that sounded suspiciously like a yawn. He looked up at his sister with big eyes. ‘Are you going to tell Papa?’

‘Not if you promise to come back to your cage quietly,’ she said. ‘And let me look at your dragon.’

‘Deal,’ he said quickly, before she could change her mind. ‘You can keep it until I get out.’

She looked delighted by the prospect. ‘Maxim, go and put it in my lab while I take Gradok back,’ she said. Then, with an air of remembering something, ‘And if you two are bored enough to be helping my brother get up to mischief I’m sure I can find you something useful to do.’

‘Ve’s sorry,’ they chorused.

‘Good,’ she said absently. ‘And that’s the lab near my bedroom.’

By the time she and Gradok had reached the end of the corridor he was chattering happily about the possibility of a toolkit dragon.

‘She is a fun von,’ said Ognian approvingly. ‘She neffer even asked about de door.’

‘Yah, she is goot,’ said Maxim, picking up the now unconscious dragon. ‘Anyvay, Hy vill see hyu later.’

*

There was a clank on the edge of one of the benches in Euphrosynia’s lab, the one she and Ogglespoon didn’t currently have cogs all over. It was a tiny snake, no longer than Maxim’s thumb, bright gold wearing what appeared to be a crown made of a sapphire surrounded by diamonds. The crown was rather bigger than its head, and it had to tilt it back rather a long way to look at Maxim, who was wondering what on earth it was for. It didn’t look big enough to do anything, and while it was kind of pretty, if a bit top heavy, it would be a strange sort of ornament. He reached out to prod it experimentally.

‘Don’t touch that!’ Euphrosynia snapped from behind him. He jerked his hand back just the snake clank lunged, revealing tiny silver fangs.

‘Sorry,’ said Ogglespoon, looking up and addressing the apology to Euphrosynia rather than Maxim. ‘The poison was meant to be an anti-theft device, not —’

Euphrosynia waved a hand at him. ‘It’s fine. Anyone who thinks it’s a good idea to poke something in my lab that they don’t recognise _deserves_ to be poisoned.’ A sentiment she then contradicted somewhat by grabbing Maxim’s hand and turning it over to check he hadn’t been bitten.

‘So vot is it?’ he asked, as Euphrosynia discovered for herself the lack of puncture marks and dropped his hand.

‘You’ll find out tomorrow,’ she said.

‘Vhy tomorrow?’

‘Because the Castle wants it to be a surprise,’ said Euphrosynia. ‘And I don’t mind having some peace for a bit.’

Maxim gave the little clank another look. Apparently it was a clue to something bigger? Tomorrow would be soon enough to find out.

*

The next day the Doom Bell rang — if rang was really the right word for something that didn’t make a sound so much as a space in Maxim’s head. As a human the space had always filled with every bad thought and depressing memory, even after he’d learnt to let it roll over him within the few seconds it rang. As a Jäger it was just a space.

Everyone dropped what they were doing and ran to the square in front of the Castle. Either they were being attacked or there was a celebration, and either way gathering was what was called for. Maxim didn’t think they were under attack, since Sturmhalten had been built the Storm King’s armies hadn’t advanced far enough from it to reach Mechanicsburg. Instead the Heterodyne forces were beseiging Sturmhalten. Or rather, since it was in a pass, _one side_ of Sturmhalten. Maxim wasn’t the only Jäger to find it embarrassing they were pretending there was actually a point to that.

‘Attention, citizens of Mechanicsburg,’ said the Castle cheerfully, which told him absolutely nothing because it was exactly as cheerful about attacks as about celebrations. ‘I am annoucing the engagement of Euphrosynia Heterodyne and Haralamb Ogglespoon.’ The Castle doors swung open to reveal the couple standing inside it, Euphrosynia with her hand on Ogglespoon’s arm. She held her other hand up, showing the glint of gems on it, and Maxim realised as he joined in the cheering that the little clank from yesterday must have been the ring.

Either someone had known about the party in advance or more Mechanicsburg bakers had physics-defying ovens than Maxim would have thought, because it was a surprisingly short amount of time before tables laden with food were springing up everywhere. Also laden with alcohol of various types, which added to the general cheer. The general opinion was that this had been inevitable, but everyone was still glad Euphrosynia had got around to it.

*

It wasn’t long after the engagement that news of the conference trickled down. The Storm King was going to negotiate terms with the Heterodynes. There was a lot of speculation about what kind of terms those would be exactly. Would he seriously try to convince Clemethious to become a vassal, or would this just confirm Mechanicsburg as off limits to the Alliance and the Alliance lands as off limits to the Heterodynes? And, a matter of some importance to the Jägers, would any of them be taken along? Would Clemethious stick with human soldiers so as to seem less intimidating? Or would he want to be intimidating?

Those questions were answered for Maxim when he was summoned to Euphrosynia’s rooms and told he’d be coming along as her bodyguard. ‘My Father will be bringing Ognian,’ she added. ‘You’ll be the only Jägers there.’ She gave him a thoughtful look. ‘Try to see what the opinion of the Alliance soldiers is on this truce.’

Uncertainty about how to obey that order had Maxim seeking out Ognian. ‘Ve is meant to be listening to vat de Storm King’s solders is saying,’ he said. ‘But Hy don’t think they vill tok to Jägerkin.’

‘Oh, dey vill,’ said Ognian. ‘Iz eazy.’

Maxim gave him a dubious look. ‘Ve is not meant to be scaring dem, either.’

‘No, no. Iz a goot thing to know when dealing vit humans — if hyu is fonny they forget hyu is also scary.’

‘Dot _vorks?_ ’

‘Hyu vill see. Ve ken hear all sorts of things.’

‘So dot is vhy hyu vos picked.’

The strangest thing about Ognian’s plan might have been that it did work. People who started out flinching from them wound up treating them with only a little more wariness than the human Heterodyne troops. Bantering with Ognian was far from new, playing it up to an audience in order to convince them he wasn’t about to have them for dinner felt odd. Being around this many humans felt odd, how long had it been since he’d last sought non-Jäger company? When the last few games of cards broke up and soldiers wandered off to bed he found himself still feeling keyed up, and wandered outside instead, to stare up at the stars without really seeing them.

‘Hoy,’ Ognian said. ‘Not tired?’

‘Jest thinking,’ he answered. ‘It’s hard to remember being de vun vithout claws.’

Ognian sat down on the grass, leaning back against the leg of a supply wagon. ‘Those memories alvays fade.’

‘Neffer thot I’d have to learn how to tok to humans.’

‘Regrets?’ Ognian looked oddly serious, head tilted up and eyes glinting orange in the glow of the lantern coming from under the door of the tent which had been serving as a tavern.

Maxim shook his head. ‘Hy is Jägerkin.’ He didn’t regret it, being part of the pack, being Euphrosynia’s, _belonging_. ‘Hy just vasn’t expecting…’

‘Ve is still a leedle human.’ Ognian grinned proudly and stretched back against the wagon. ‘I haff my family. Ve all haff something.’

‘Hy don’t.’

‘Hyu vill find something.’ Ognian waved a hand, claws catching the light. ‘Hyu is still almost human by hyuself right now.’

Maxim glanced at the tent. He suspected the people in there would disagree. On the other hand, to most Jägers he was practically a child, still lacking the experience most of them had. Even Ognian had a couple of decades on him. Maybe it wasn’t a bad thing, if right now he didn’t want to be either not human or not Jäger, being young enough to still be in between.

*

‘Lord Sturmvoraus,’ said Euphrosynia, curtseying. The Lord in question bowed in turn. Behind him was a construct dressed as a page, tufted lynx ears poking from his hair. His gaze was catlike, too, looking through everything rather than at it.

‘Lady Euphrosynia. And this must be one of the famous Jägermonsters,’ Lord Sturmvoraus replied. Maxim smiled at the adjective, which for some reason caused Lord Sturmvoraus to frown slightly even as he ran his eyes over Maxim with a mixture of curiosity and calculation. A little fear, too, but less than Maxim had expected. ‘I must admit, I didn’t realise you made any that weren’t hideous.’

‘Oh, really,’ said Euphrosynia, without any noticable inflection. ‘I notice you’ve managed to pick up a pretty construct. Was he a gift?’

‘Oh, yes. From Prince Alin in Caracal. I don’t suppose you’ll be handing out Jägers if you join the alliance?’ His voice was jocular, but he wasn’t really joking about it. Maxim narrowed his eyes, wanting to protest but obeying his orders not to talk.

Euphrosynia smiled up at Lord Sturmvoraus. ‘Well, you never know. But that would be up to my father.’ She was lying. The entire point of her coming here was so she could lie to people. Which meant it shouldn’t have stung. Maxim twitched his shoulders, shrugging it off, as she and Lord Sturmvoraus parted ways. Just another way of being underestimated.

As they walked to the conference hall almost all of the Lords and Ladies Euphrosynia nodded to had a construct following them. A page, bodyguard or secretary. Usually pretty, dressed in some fancy form of livery or uniform, often one which hightlighted their non-human features, walking a few steps behind their masters with their eyes cast down. Construct soldiers or servants weren’t that unusual, but Maxim could see the pattern here and it made him feel like a fashion accessory. As if he’d been chosen less as a bodyguard and more the same way Euphrosynia chose her jewellery. He glanced at her hand automatically at the thought, and realised her ring wasn’t there. Had it been earlier? No, she hadn’t been wearing it all day. Since it was impossible to lose, it looked like Jägers weren’t the only things being implied to be on offer.

Clemethius was already waiting for them in the conference chamber. Ognian wasn’t, and Maxim’s first thought was a panicky _what happened?_ before realising that it was far more likely Clemethius had simply chosen not to bring an attendant to the meeting. Euphrosynia took her seat beside her father with an oddly demure smile. Ogglespoon glanced up from where he was sitting a little way away and smiled at her but she didn’t look around.

‘How is it going?’ Clemethius murmured.

‘Much as expected,’ Euphrosynia answered. ‘They still remember I’m a Heterodyne, but already find me quite charming.’

The Storm King, Andronicus Valois, was announced and entered wearing a uniform of such sartorial magnificence that it was a moment before Maxim remembered his orders not to stare. Behind him was not a construct, but a clank. A winged woman who took the Alliance’s tendency towards pretty clanks to new heights. Her face was blank, a porcelain plate that probably had a limited range of expressions to begin with and wasn’t showing any now. There was no body language, either. She carried a sword, but didn’t noticeably assess the room for threats or pay attention to her King. She simply stood there, behind him, as if dormant until something was triggered. Which wasn’t unusual for a clank, so why was there something unnerving about her apparent emptiness? Did she simply look too human?

Valois looked around the table. His gaze paused on Euphrosynia and for a moment his eyes were wide and stunned, something more than the appreciation of a beatiful girl in them. Then his expression slipped back to pleasantly neutral as he began the formal welcome of everyone there. Euphrosynia leant forward slightly, smelling of excitement and anticipation.

The conference consisted of establishing, at length, that the Heterodynes couldn’t take Sturmhalten, the Alliance couldn’t take Mechanicsburg and therefore everyone should stop fighting in the middle. There was something strange, though. The various constructs were ignored, but everyone kept looking at Valois’ clank, as if she was part of the conference somehow. At times it was almost as if she was in charge of the conference, people in the Alliance would finish their speeches and then glance at her as if hoping for approval. Yet she remained blank and silent, completely deferential. Valois, for his part, ignored the clank but kept looking at Euphrosynia for different reasons.

Afterwards, Euphrosynia walked out of the conference next to her father, Maxim still holding his place behind her. She unexpectedly glanced back at him once they were out of sight of anyone. ‘Anything you want to say?’

‘Vhere is Ognian?’

Clemethius chuckled. ‘Back at the barracks, or in town. How long do you think he’d obey an order to stay silent for?’

Maxim nodded, reassured. ‘Vhyfore did everyone treat der klenk like a schoolteacher?’

Euphrosynia smiled delightedly. ‘You noticed that, then. She’s one of the Muses.’

Maxim had heard of the Muses, of course. Clanks that could see the future, imbued with all the wisdom a King would need. He’d also heard that the Heterodyne army hadn’t been able to stop Sturmhalten being built because the Spirit of Europa dwelt under it and that Valois had prophetic dreams. There were always plenty of rumours to go around. ‘Huh. So dey is real.’

‘Very much so,’ said Euphrosynia.

Clemethius dropped his hand onto Euphrosynia’s shoulder. ‘Valois was too busy looking at you to look to his Muse.’

Euphrosynia smoothed down the front of her dress. ‘I think I shall go for a walk. See you later, Father.’

The walk took them outside, into a camp constructed in what appeared to be rings. The conference tent was at the very centre, a vast dome of gold silk. Around it were the tents of various nobles and Sparks, who seemed to be vying to see who could fit most sigils, flags and crests onto them. The Heterodynes were winning. Each of these had a little ring of plain tents around it, containing guards and servants. Ringing the whole thing, at a distance that suggested the main camp was giving them the cold shoulder, were more ramshackle tents. Cobblers, blacksmiths, grocers, tinkers, taverns and even brothels, taking advantage of the large gathering. Euphrosynia, as a lady, was of course remaining inside the camp proper, where even the ground between tents was covered with carpet so the ladies wouldn’t soil their slippers.

‘Euphrosynia!’ The call slowed her and she turned back, to where Ogglespoon was catching up with them. He stopped and bowed to her in the proper courtly fashion as he came level.

‘I didn’t see you before the conference,’ he said, smiling at her, and offering her his arm.

She shook her head, even as she smiled back. ‘I was busy. And I still am, I’m afraid. You should come and visit Mechanicsburg again, when this is over.’

‘But since we’re both here, surely I won’t get in the way of whatever you have planned,’ he protested. Then he caught sight of her hand and frowned. ‘What happened to your ring?’

‘In a cage in my room. I think it may be malfunctioning, it’s never stopped me setting it aside to work, but it’s started trying to follow me even when I haven’t called it.’

‘Maybe it’s worried you weren’t planning to pick it up again,’ said Ogglespoon.

‘Don’t be silly. It’s only for the conference,’ said Euphrosynia.

Ogglespoon grabbed her wrist, not hard enough to hurt her or even really to restrain her. As if he needed to reassure himself she was there. ‘So I’m only your fiancé when it’s not inconvenient? How will that work when I’m your husband?’

‘I expect I’ll find you convenient more often than not,’ she answered lightly.

Ogglespoon’s eyes narrowed, his grip tightening. ‘I am _not_ your plaything, Euphrosynia. And I will not be treated like one!’

Someone else was approaching, with the hushed sound of footsteps on carpet. Maxim looked up to see Valois and his Muse, presumably out for a stroll as Euphrosynia had been and touched Euphrosynia’s arm to alert her that they were about to be in the way. Her gaze flicked up and suddenly she looked much younger and more vulnerable, wilting inside her finery.

Valois stopped. ‘Is this man bothering you?’ he asked.

Euphrosynia shot a frightened look at Ogglespoon. ‘No, your majesty.’

‘My leige,’ the Muse began, but was cut off by an upraised hand.

‘All the same, perhaps you’d care to walk with me?’ said Valois, holding out an arm to Euphrosynia. She latched onto it with evident gratitude. ‘I’m surprised your monster didn’t defend you.’

‘My father’s monsters, your majesty, not mine,’ she said. She looked at Maxim, and he could see the warm humour in her eyes, inviting him to be a conspirator in a game he neither understood nor liked. ‘Please go home.’ Her voice was timid, as if she wasn’t used to having a monster following her about. ‘I’m sure the King’s Muse will be protection enough.’

Maxim glanced at the muse automatically as she was mentioned. She was standing more stiffly now than she had been earlier, wings held high, for all the world as if she was repressing strong disapproval. Maxim sympathised. He bowed in acknowledgement of the order, and turned to go, hearing Euphrosynia, Valois and the Muse walking away as well. Then a tiny sound, like a suppressed sob, and he turned back to see Ogglespoon still standing there with his fists clenched.

Maxim hesitated then walked back. ‘It vill go beck to normal,’ he offered. ‘Iz just dis place, making her act veird.’

Ogglespoon let out a brief bark of laughter. ‘This place isn’t _making_ her do anything. And you’re even more naive than I am.’

‘She iz a Heterodyne vit a plen, of course pipple is going to get hurt. Hyu just haff to vait for it to blow over, und at least novun is being turned into fish.’

‘…Life in Mechanicsburg must be very interesting,’ said Ogglespoon. He rubbed his hand across his face. ‘Thank you, I suppose.’

With that they went their separate ways.


	5. Chapter 5

There was a feeling in Mechanicsburg like a coiled spring, or a Jack-in-the-box. The Heterodynes had been pushed out of the rest of Europe, back into their box, and the town was full of a tension ready to explode as soon as the lid came off. Perhaps it was because all the Jägers were home at once, full of energy and speculation. Maxim, as the only Jäger present at the negotiations themselves and, even more importantly, the fight between Euphrosynia and Ogglespoon, found himself the centre of attention for a while and revelled in it.

When Ogglespoon did visit, a month after the conference, there was a lot of speculation and several bets as to whether he’d reconcile with Euphrosynia. Not just among the Jägers, either, the entire town was agog to see what would happen, and since none of Euphrosynia’s Jägers had been called in to attend to her they were reduced to listening to rumours the same as everyone else.

Euphrosynia and Ogglespoon had kissed and made up. She had reassigned him as an experimental subject. The Castle had locked them in the harem together. They had eloped on one of the flying squids. She had dropped him into the nyar-spider pits. They were going to get married, but had decided to design a new type of priest.

Vali was the first to give into frustration and hang around the Castle until he found a minion coming from the right area to pounce on. It was a very good pounce and Fane and Maxim, who had come along as curious observers, paused to clap for a moment while the minion got over his fright.

‘So,’ said Vali. ‘Vot is goink on vit de luffers?’

‘ _I_ don’t know!’ said the minion. ‘They were in her room for ages and then they went to her garden.’

Euphrosynia’s garden was a round greenhouse perched above one of the staircases, looking rather like a birdcage with the half that poked out walled with glass and ornate framework. It was home to herbs, mildly terrifying flowers, and rather more terrifying hummingbirds who were used to fighting for their meals.

‘Come on,’ said Vali. ‘Ve ken see in from de stairs.’

That might have been overstating it. The herbs inside the garden covered most of the windows in a thick green curtain, through which glimpses of a bright pink dress could be seen. Gradok was sitting on the stairs, level with the garden, holding a magnifying glass and a tiny screwdriver, with his tongue sticking out as he concentrated.

‘Hoy,’ said Maxim, bending down to see what he was working on. Fane and Vali leant over too.

Gradok looked up, unperturbed by being loomed over, and grinned. ‘Are you here to spy on Euphrosynia too?’

The things he’d been working on were about the about an inch long, two dozen of them scattered across the stairs, and with insectile wings, gauzy and iridescent material over webs of unbelievable fine mesh. The bodies were draconic, serpentine with disproportionately large claws held curled against them and triangular heads.

‘Hyu made dragonflies!’ Fane exclaimed, bending down.

‘Yep!’ said Gradok. ‘They were meant to sneak in and pull the herbs back so I could see, but the hummingbirds got them as soon as they came out of the vents.’

‘Vhy are hyu spying on hyu sister?’ asked Vali.

‘Because no one tells me anything,’ said Gradok, bending back to his dragonfly clank. ‘Same as you,’ he added, with another grin.

Maxim sat down on the stairs and glanced across at the greenery filled windows. ‘Hyu pull der herbs beck, iz gun be real obvious,’ he said.

‘Yeah, but we’ll be able to see if they were kissing,’ said Gradok, voice full of the same curiosity he applied to watching lizards. ‘And I was going to do it anyway, it’s not like you’re doing anything except being here.’

Maxim and Fane shared a glance. ‘Hy dun think she’ll care,’ said Fane. ‘But ve get confined to barracks, oh vell, nottink going on outside dem right now.’

Maxim laughed. ‘Goot point.’

Gradok put down the dragonfly he’d been working on and picked up a slightly larger one with a set of what appeared to be screws of varying sizes embedded in its back. He fiddled with them for a while and then let go. The dragonfly looked around, gave a piercing whistle, and the next moment the whole swarm had lifted into the air and darted away in a shimmer of silver. He sat back, drawing one leg up to rest an arm on his knee, and looked at the windows to the garden. The Jägers turned to follow his gaze.

For now the view was the same as it had been, flashes of pink between the stems. Ogglespoon was wearing green, making him harder to pick out even in motion. Enough time went by for Maxim to be wondering if the hummingbirds had won again, and then the curtains of herbs were suddenly pulled aside.

Euphrosynia and Ogglespoon stood outlined in the V of the drawn back herbs, a whirl of silver dragons and iridescent hummingbirds along the edges giving it the effect of an illuminated border. Euphrosynia was in his arms, head tilted back as she kissed him, cheeks flushed and golden hair cascading down her back. Ogglespoon was gazing down at her in wonder as he kissed her, eyes bright. They looked so much like a fairytale illustration that it took a moment to notice the half-finished clank built out of watering cans and pruning shears, or the fact that their bright eyes and flushed cheeks were as much because they were in the madness place as because they were kissing.

Then the pair noticed they were watched, Ogglespoon turning and yelling something unheard through the glass, while Euphrosynia took one look at the grinning Jägers and collapsed laughing against him. Ogglespoon gently pushed her off and dived for the clank — whatever it’s original purpose it was almost certainly being reprogrammed to hunt down spying Jägers. Fane grabbed Gradok and they ran, jumping a trap door that opened in front of them (possibly the Castle’s revenge for interrupting a Heterodyne romance), and reaching the outside of the Castle breathless and delighted.

*

Maxim glanced up as the envelope was torn open and the faint smell of roses wafted out. ‘From Ogglespoon?’ He’d been a frequent visitor since they’d made up, but for now he was back on his own lands. With the war in its current uneasy stalemate he wanted to work on his defences before it sprang back into life. Euphrosynia’s ring wasn’t back on her finger though, despite the rekindled romance.

‘How did you — oh, rose scented paper,’ said Euphrosynia. ‘No, it’s not. And don’t ask who it is from, you shouldn’t even know I’m getting love letters.’

‘Sorry, but noses don’t come vit an off switch,’ Maxim said.

‘Keep this to yourself and I won’t try installing one,’ Euphrosynia said. It _might_ have been a joke.

It was enough to keep Maxim quiet while she read through the letter, humming to herself under her breath as if she was in the middle of building something not receiving a love letter. When she had finished she folded it and slipped it into a drawer, still smiling thoughtfully.

‘Hyu Papa doesn’t know?’ Maxim ventured.

She glanced up as if she’d been jolted out of her thoughts. ‘Oh, _he_ knows. My brother doesn’t.’ She pulled out a piece of paper, tapped a pen against her lips a few timed and started writing. Maxim craned his neck to see if he could catch who she was addressing it to. ‘You’re not as subtle as you think you are,’ she said, without looking up. ‘Will you be less interested if I tell you this is politics, not a love affair?’

‘Vit rose scented paper?’ Maxim asked sceptically.

‘Heh.’ She crossed something out and rewrote a few words. ‘You Jägers are all romantics at heart, aren’t you?’

‘Don’t think anyvun’s called us dot before,’ said Maxim, amused by the assessment.

‘It’s true though. The Castle believes in breeding stock. _You_ actually believe in love.’

‘Ve serve you out of luff,’ he answered, more seriously. ‘Not de same type, mebbe, but ve do. Hyu don’t believe dot?’

‘No, I do.’ She turned around leaning over the back of the chair, pen still dangling from her hand. ‘I rely on it. And I believe that the man writing these letters loves me. But I don’t love him, and I don’t intend to.’

‘Den vhy? Breeding?’

‘No, I have brothers. I don’t need to be bred.’ There was a sound like a wall clearing its throat. ‘And you can stay out of this,’ she added, absently tapping a foot against the wall. ‘Because I have ideas, and I want to see if they work. And because even we can’t fight the whole of Europe forever.’

Maxim cast another glance at the letter. There was only one person he could think of where allying with them would put an end to the war. ‘Valois?’

She groaned. ‘Sometimes I think Jäger intelligence is inversely proportional to how useful I’d find it. Yes, it’s Valois. Tell anyone and I will skin you.’

‘Hyu _really_ vant to marry him?’

‘He’s very handsome and he owns most of Europe. Why wouldn’t I?’

Valois feared and detested Jägermonsters, but so did most people further than a day’s travel from Mechanicsburg, and with good reason. It wasn’t really something to judge him on. Still Maxim was left feeling vaguely disquieted by the idea of Euphrosynia, who made battle constructs and ghost maker mice, with Valois, who had put Ognian and Dimo on display like captured animals to frighten people. ‘He iz not a Spark.’ It wasn’t the most important objection, wasn’t even what Maxim meant really, but it was the best he could manage.

‘Oh, that’s not important. Like I said, I’m not breeding the main bloodline,’ said Euphrosynia. Which was so far from the point that Maxim couldn’t think of a reply to it.

*

It was some months before the engagement was announced. Ogglespoon seemed to have been largely forgotten, including by the Jägers and people of Mechanicsburg who were more interested in seeing their Heterodyne married than concerned about who she was marrying. If he had protested he’d done so away from the ears of the rumour mill. The Doom Bell rang, there was an announcement made by the Castle. People flooded the streets to sing, dance and drink (which meant the singing and dancing got progressively worse, but no one cared anyway). The Jägers were out on the streets too, of course, joining in the party and kissing the girls. They all seemed so happy, and Maxim hadn’t expected that they would be when they found out.

‘Oh, stop glaring at pipple,’ said Ognian. ‘Iz a happy occasion.’

‘It vill end badly,’ Maxim answered, still looking down at the street.

Ognian rolled his eyes. ‘Leave predictions like dot to de grannies. Iz a party!’

‘Hokay, hokay.’ It was a party, and Euphrosynia’s marriage wouldn’t be either better or worse for him enjoying it while it lasted.

It was, in the end, a very good party. The wedding itself was a good deal more solemn, taking place on the battlefield outside Sturmhalten. Euphrosynia wore a white dress and was attended by bridesmaids and an honour guard of unobjectionably human soldiers who hardly knew her. The Jägers watched from the lookout posts of the still standing fortifications, taking turns with the telescopes and making the guests nervous. Maxim caught the glint of metal on the battlements of Sturmhalten and raised the telescope for a moment, finding the muses arrayed in perfect symmetry and watching the wedding too.

Down below Euphrosynia stood out against the earth of the battlefield like a snowdrop, looking oddly demure in her gown. Maxim wondered whether they’d got to her promising to love, honour and obey yet and whether Valois knew his bride didn’t mean a word of it. But what Heterodyne could say that and mean it?

Then it was done. When they kissed Euphrosynia did something they couldn’t see that made Valois start for a moment, and Maxim joined in the laughter. A door opened in the wall of Sturmhalten and the Muses arrived, still arrayed symmetrically as they walked, as if it was natural to them to look like a work of art. Valois walked over to them and took the hand of the central one, the one with wings, pulling her forward, and beckoning Euphrosynia over. The other Muses stood still, as if frozen, for a moment. Then one of them, a dancer, suddenly threw herself forward and hugged the winged one tightly. A wing swept around her protectively, and then the winged one gently set her aside and knelt to Euphrosynia.

‘Wedding present?’ murmured a Jäger.

‘Better den a toast rack,’ said another.

‘Hy dunno, Vipsania got a nize toast rack.’

‘Yah, it toasted people und stretched dem.’

Euphrosynia put a hand on the muse’s shoulder and the Muse rose. Then Valois took her arm and the two of them, the Muses trailing them, walked back towards Sturmhalten. It was only for the wedding night, Euphrosynia was staying in Castle Heterodyne for the next year while Valois saw to his Empire now that it wasn’t held together by fear. The door to Sturmhalten slammed shut behind them.


	6. Chapter 6

Euphrosynia returned the next day, smelling of Valois and looking happy. Clearly one part of the wedding had worked out well. The winged Muse followed her, looking remote and haughty.

‘This is Otilia, Muse of Protection,’ Euphrosynia told them. ‘She is going to be guarding me. I think Valois was worried Ogglespoon might try something. Otilia, these are my current bodyguards. Vali, Maxim, Fane.’

‘Ve iz pleased to meet hyu,’ Maxim said, doffing his hat to her.

‘Likewise,’ she said. There was an odd inflection in her voice, but what emotion she was expressing Maxim couldn’t guess. She smelled of metal and oil, no help there.

‘Good,’ said Euphrosynia, walking towards her room with the four of them following. ‘I’m going to see to the packing. All of you can wait outside the door. Stay close, it’s a bit late for assassins, but you never know.’

‘Late?’ asked Vali.

‘Too late to stop der weddink,’ said Fane.

‘No one wanted to stop an alliance with the Heterodynes,’ said Otilia, without looking at anyone. ‘You terrify them. But opening the Storm King to another alliance by marriage now he has attained this one is a possibility. Especially for those with eligible daughters.’

‘Well, there you have it. Apparently it’s a good time for assassins after all,’ said Euphrosynia. ‘Have fun if any do show up.’

She disappeared into her room and the four of them took up positions around the door, Fane’s ears visibly swiveling while the others listened for danger less obviously. After a little while had passed with no incident Maxim asked, ‘Hyu tink ve get a Smoke Knight?’

Otilia whirled on him, ‘Why do you think Lord Sturmvoraus would be sending assassins?’

Maxim blinked, taken aback by her agitation. ‘Hy don’t.’

‘Then why would you expect a Smoke Knight?’

‘Hy’m not expectink vun. Hy chust vant to fight vun. Dey sound preedy great, but dey izn’t used on der battlefield so Hy neffer effen got to see vun.’

Otilia gave him a severe look. ‘You should not be hoping for an assassination attempt on your Mistress.’

‘Vhy not? She dun care as long as dey fail.’

Otilia didn’t answer, returning to her neutral guarding pose as if she’d never moved out of it.

*

The only thing that really seemed to change after the wedding was the number of letters Euphrosynia received. Valois wrote to her constantly and, according to Euphrosynia, indiscreetly.

‘He’s losing people already,’ she told Bludtharst, their respective Jägers listening in. ‘People started peeling away from the edges of the alliance as soon as it wasn’t all about fighting us. He’s been trying to convince them there are other benefits to staying, sometimes successfully.’ She smiled. ‘Next year I’ll be able to distract him better.’

‘Does dot mean dere are pipple ve ken raid again?’ Vali asked her, later.

‘Not yet,’ she said. ‘Too early. We’d scare them straight back into the alliance.’

So Mechanicsburg remained at peace, a state it wore poorly and with some bewilderment. The townspeople fixed and polished the armaments and weighed the benefits of selling weapons to their current allies against the certainty that they wouldn’t be allies forever. The Jägers fought in the streets while the townspeople avoided them with some concern but without alarm, long used to the fact that Jägers would only hurt each other. With no enemies to loot hats from one successful hat duel would lead to a chain as the now hatless Jäger sought to take someone else’s hat, and with not much to do there were now several chains going at once, which accounted for most of the more serious fights.

The other new thing was the presence of Otilia, who was a constant presence around Euphrosynia. A remote observer, breaking at times into flashes of bemused disapproval which were usually aimed at the Jägers, she seemed a quiet and unemotional presence. If there was a threat to Euphrosynia she would presumably fight, but otherwise she could be disregarded. Then, one night, Maxim ran into her when Euphrosynia had just retired to bed and therefore even the uneating, unsleeping clank was off duty.

Otilia was standing by a window in one of the Castle’s corridors, looking oddly girlish with the moonlight and the pensive tilt to her head. It occured to Maxim that she’d only been built eight years ago, for all she normally seemed ageless it wasn’t really wrong to think of her as young.

‘If hyu was human I’d offer hyu a drink,’ he said.

She turned her head, surprised not by his presence but by the fact he had spoken to her. ‘Why?’

‘Hyu look sad.’

She said, ‘You assume a clank can feel sad.’

‘Interesting qvestion. Mebbe hyu just look sad from de outside und it’s not real. But if hyu say hyu is sad I’m not gonna argue.’

Her wings drooped for a moment. ‘Perhaps,’ she said. ‘…You serve the Heterodynes. What do you do when you are given conflicting orders?’

‘Obey der person vit more authority. Or de vun dot knows de most. Or de vun whose orders make de most sense.’

‘And if those three would lead to obeying different people?’

‘Mek a call und hope you don’t get in too much trouble later.’

Otilia smiled slightly, looking halfway between sorrow and laughter. ‘I may not be able to do that.’

‘Because hyu is a clenk?’ Maxim looked up at the ceiling. ‘Der Kestle makes it’s own calls _all der time_.’

Laughter echoed around them. ‘Yesss. But despite her name Otilia was created to _guide_ and _teach_. I was created to _protect_.’

‘Iz hyu saying she can’t protect de mistress?’ Maxim rounded on Otilia. ‘Hy thot you vas sent to do dot!’

‘I was,’ she said, wings mantling and eyes narrowing. ‘I will. I know how to fight. I am the Muse of Protection. I will not fail in my task.’

‘Heh,’ said the Castle. ‘Better. You might be fun after all.’

Maxim looked around warily — the Castle’s definition of fun tended to involve malevolent architecture, although it didn’t actually try to kill the Jägers. It just believed surprise pit traps were an effective and hilarious way to keep them on their toes. This time nothing happened, which was almost more worrying. Otilia was looking pensive again. ‘Hy’d better go. Vatch out for traps.’

She looked surprised. ‘Why?’

The Castle chuckled. ‘He just doesn’t like my sense of humour. But I wasn’t planning on anything tonight.’

‘Heh.’ As if the Castle could be trusted on that. Still, he really should get some sleep and Otilia had been an expensive gift, so hopefully it would go easy on her if it was feeling playful. ‘Goot night.’

‘Good night,’ said Otilia, voice sounding distant. When he glanced back she was looking out of the window again, but her head was cocked to one side as if she was listening to something. Maybe the Castle was whispering in her ear.

*

Fane was leaning over the balcony, looking as if he might snap it if he leaned too hard, attending raptly to something below.

‘Fane -’ Maxim started to call, and Fane turned with a finger pressed to his lips and beckoned him over. He nodded and came to stand beside Fane, resting a hand on the balcony and staring down into the hall below.

Otilia was there, sword in hand, and Gradok was beside her with a wooden one, head cocked sideways to watch her. She was demonstrating sword drills, simple ones given her student, but with an absolute precision that made each one look like a work of art. ‘She haff style,’ Maxim murmured approvingly.

‘She iz _very goot_ ,’ Fane rumbled. Below them Otilia put down her sword to set her hands on Gradok’s arms and help him into position. His face was screwed up with a concentration he seldom applied to anything non-mechanical, and Otilia’s movements were light, oddly tender.

‘Hyu don’t even use a sword,’ Maxim answered distractedly. Otilia looked happy. He remembered the Castle saying teaching was her purpose, but it was not what she was here to do.

‘Hy used to.’ Now Fane sounded wistful.

Maxim turned, glancing down at Fane’s huge two fingered hands. ‘Hyu neffer said. Ve could haff found hyu a nize big sword.’

Fane laughed, softly so as not to disturb the lesson below. ‘Now hyu sound like your friend.’

‘He’s not _alvays_ wrong,’ said Maxim, grinning back because at least Fane looked more cheerful now. ‘And Hy only sound like him vhen dere is someting to be optimistic _about_. I’ve seen clenks vit swords, all sorts of sizes. Somevun on der battlefield vould grab you vun.’

Fane gave him a wry look and Maxim remembered that they weren’t at war and didn’t _have_ a battlefield. ‘Hokay, but —’ He was interrupted by a bell chiming the hour.

‘Hy’m late,’ Fane said, straightening up quickly.

‘Oh, yah, dot’s vhy Hy vas lookink for hyu,’ Maxim said. ‘Hyu vas meant to take over from me a vhile ago.’

‘Und Otilia’s here,’ Fane said. ‘Zo nobody’s vit Mistress Euphrosynia.’

Maxim shrugged. ‘She haff der Kestle.’

‘Indeed she does,’ said the Castle, voice close enough to be almost a whisper. ‘But you are not meant to _rely_ on that.’

‘Ve don’t,’ said Fane, already hurrying off. If the Castle replied to that, it replied to him not Maxim.

*

Maxim raised the idea of finding a sword for Fane to Ognian, later, who took to the idea with enthusiasm but without the faintest idea of what to do. The two of them raised it with Dimo, who suggested asking Jenka, who pointed out that there was a whole basement in Castle Heterodyne full of scavenged clank parts, and sometimes whole scavenged clanks, and that the Heterodynes found any weapons other than death rays or lava canons the least interesting part of them.

They _could_ have asked the Heterodynes for permission at that point, and the fact that they didn’t had more to do with boredom than anything else. Looking for a sword gave them a reason to sneak into the Castle and spend most of the day poking about among partially disassembled but not always properly deactivated clanks, coming out of it roughed up and cheerful.

‘Hyu gun cut hyu head off if hyu slip,’ Maxim said as they climbed the stairs.

Ognian, large unsheathed sword slung over his shoulder, grinned. ‘Von’t slip. Anyvay, dot ken be fixed, hyu know.’

‘Mebbe ve’d chust find a better head to put on,’ Maxim answered, pushing the door open and nearly tripping over something that hadn’t been in front of it when they went down.

It was a little green dragon, tiny and round, with four stubby little legs that splatted out around it as it slept because they weren’t long enough to do anything else with. Floppy little wings like paper fans dangled from its shoulders, there was a metal door it its tummy, embossed with a trilobite, and another tiny little gold trilobite embedded in its forehead. There was also a slot in its back that made it look like a piggy bank, even more than the basic shape of it did.

‘Aww, dot’s so _cute_ ,’ Ognian said, and the next thing he’d dropped the sword to scoop it up (with an odd jingling sound) and was _cooing_ at it.

‘Iz dot a piggy bank?’ Maxim asked, poking a claw into the slot.

The dragon opened its eyes. ‘No stealing from me,’ it said, in a voice that would have been gruff if it had been a bit lower pitched, and if it hadn’t sounded quite so young.

Maxim pulled back and spread his claws. ‘Vouldn’t dream of it. Hyu is Master Gradok’s?’

‘Yeah,’ said the…dragon bank?

‘Hyu vant to be taken to him?’ asked Ognian, still cuddling it.

‘Yeah,’ said the dragon bank again. ‘Thanks.’ Then it flopped down into Ognian’s arms and yawned.

Gradok was in the kitchen eating breakfast, and jumped up when they arrived. ‘Franz!’ he said, as the dragon bank jumped and fluttered awkwardly across to the table. It wasn’t flying so much as falling slowly. Gradok tore off the end of his croissant, swiped it through the jam and held it out for Franz to take in his stubby forepaws. ‘Thanks for bringing him back.’

‘He iz so cute,’ said Ognian. ‘Hyu is not jest making clenks now?’

Gradok grinned. ‘I wanted to try making a real dragon. And Franz is designed to grow if I get more money, clanks can’t do that.’

Franz finished his bit of croissant and licked jam off his paws, having to bend his large head awkwardly to reach. ‘I stopped them stealing from me,’ he said boastfully

‘No hyu didn’t! Ve dun’t steal from Heterodynes,’ Ognian protested.

Gradok glanced at the sword Maxim was now carrying. ‘You stole that sword, didn’t you?’ he said.

Maxim and Ognian looked at each other. ‘Vell, yez…’ said Maxim.

‘But hyu could giff uz permission now,’ said Ognian.

‘Sure,’ said Gradok. ‘I don’t think anyone was using it, but why did you want a giant sword?’

‘Iz for Fane,’ Maxim answered. ‘Ve saw hyu practising de other day und he vanted vun.’

‘Did I look like I was doing well?’ Gradok asked. He frowned. ‘Otilia’s a really good teacher, but she says strange things sometimes.’

‘Hyu looked like hyu vas learning,’ Maxim answered. ‘Vat strange tings?’

Franz, having finished his croissant, had fallen asleep curled around the jam jar. Gradok stroked him with a finger while he thought. ‘I said I hadn’t realised fighting could be so much fun until she taught me, and she said that learning to fight could be fun, or sparring when no one gets hurt, but real fighting isn’t fun and…um, if she didn’t teach me not to fight as well as to fight she wasn’t a good teacher at all. Isn’t real fighting fun?’

‘It _iz_ ,’ the Jägers answered in unison.

‘And you’ve done lots of it, so you’d know right?’

‘Yez.’

‘Dot’s right.’

Gradok shrugged. ‘Maybe she was just wrong about that, then? I like her, though.’

‘She does say veird tings, but Hy tink she is preedy much hokay,’ Maxim answered.

Gradok nodded, apparently statisfied with this confirmation of his own impression.


	7. Chapter 7

The news that Ogglespoon had come to visit and wished to meet Euphrosynia at the town gates was greeted with interest by Euphrosynia. The Jägers, all three of them for once since she had been working on a manticore construct that needed some repairs and had to be held still, followed her down along with Otilia, whose presence was almost a constant.

‘Mistress, why do you think he intends to meet you at the gates?’ she asked.

‘I suspect he wants to talk to me without the Castle present,’ said Euphrosynia. ‘Which means he’s either making a _very_ last ditch effort to woo me away from Andronicus, or he wants to say goodbye without the Castle suggesting he remain as my lover on the side.’

‘The Castle’s suggestions on that subject are most improper,’ said Otilia.

Euphrosynia laughed. ‘You try growing up with it.’

‘Iz not dot bad a suggestion,’ said Vali.

‘I’d be found out,’ Euphrosynia said. ‘Lovers are never as discreet as they think they are. Everyone knows about Andronicus’ skirt chasing and they wouldn’t take it from a woman.’

Otilia actually looked embarrassed, but she didn’t speak up in Andronicus’ defence.

Ogglespoon was waiting outside the town, right outside the gates, on a metal horse that looked fancy enough to be one of Valois’ Sparks designs, covered with elegant gold chasing and with spiked gold wheels attached one on each side of each hoof. He didn’t dismount when Euphrosynia approached, tipping his hat to her instead of bowing.

‘Hello, Haralamb,’ said Euphrosynia. ‘Nice horse. I didn’t think you worked with clanks much.’

‘I decided to try it for a change,’ he said. ‘What do you think?’

Sparky small talk, but small talk all the same. Whatever Ogglespoon had come to say he was in no hurry to say it. Euphrosynia didn’t seem inclined to push him either, stepping forward to examine the horse, instead, with real interest.

‘These neck joints…’ she said, putting a hand on the ridged neck.

Ogglespoon bent over, one hand hovering above her shoulder. ‘Yes. It’s very flexible.’

‘Not just that, it’s — ah!’ The last exclamation was because Ogglespoon had grabbed her suddenly around the waist and swung her onto the horse with him. The Jägers threw themselves forward at once, only for the horse’s neck to suddenly extend, sharp horns jutting forward from above the ears, and sweep across in front of them. Fane fell back with a diagonal cut across his chest, and in the moment it took them to gather themselves the horse’s legs extended to more than twice their original length and it started to gallop. They pursued, but even sprinting had a hard time keeping up with a gallop that looked oddly floundering but ate distance.

‘Fane,’ said Vali, coming to a halt.

Fane nodded, cupping his hands without being told, and Vali stepped into it and was thrown headlong across the field to land almost under the horse’s feet. Maxim caught up, turning to Fane already, only to find blood pouring down Fane’s chest where the motion of throwing had opened the wound further. For a moment they both paused, and then Fane cupped his hands again and Maxim stepped into it without saying anything.

It wasn’t like being thrown upwards. The angle felt awkward, the ground was so close, and landing hurt even before a spiked wheel clipped his shoulder. He growled and grabbed at the leg of the horse — although it was actually more like a giraffe now, thrusting it *down* and hoping the spikes on the wheel would hold it. Vali was doing the same with the one diagonally opposite, and it seemed to be working. Then, of course, the other two legs came down, the whole giraffe stiffened, and the wheels started turning. The part of the plain they’d reached was flat, and the spiked wheels were giving great traction. It zoomed forwards, pulling the two Jägers along with it.

Maxim could hear alarm bells from the town. No use, though, since no one could shoot at the giraffe without hitting Euphrosynia. Fane and Otilia weren’t going to be catching up either. He caught Vali’s eye, and both of them wrapped themselves more firmly around the legs they’d been holding and started climbing.

When he was nearly at the body a sword swung down at him, he ducked quickly, and heard Euphrosynia saying in an outraged voice, ‘Haralamb, those are _my_ Jägers.’

Then the Doom Bell rang, the strange gap it left in every other sound and every thought unmistakable. Maxim jumped from the leg he had been climbing in time to catch Ogglespoon as he slumped sideways from the giraffe. Ogglespoon was half-conscious, tears running from closed eyes. With a soft whirring sound the giraffe retracted its legs and neck until it was a horse again, and Euphrosynia jumped down.

‘Oh dear,’ she said, surprisingly softly. ‘I wasn’t in any danger, you know.’

‘Ve knew,’ said Vali, brushing himself down. ‘Ve ken’t let someone run off vit our Heterodyne.’

‘I suppose the Castle agreed,’ she said.

Ogglespoon moaned and stirred and Maxim, deciding he wasn’t going to be standing just yet, sat him down on the grass. ‘Dot vas not a bad kidnapping attempt,’ he said, cheerfully. ‘Der Kestle had to get involved, and der giraffe gets you points for style.’

Ogglespoon gave him a blank stare for a moment and then doubled over, clamping a hand over his mouth to try to hold back choked laughter. ‘Forgive me, Euphrosynia,’ he gasped. ‘For laughing…for all of this…’

She leant over and patted him on the shoulder. ‘No harm done.’

He swallowed the last of the laughter and slammed a fist into the ground, abruptly scowling. ‘You never took this seriously at all, did you?’ He demanded. ‘I thought if I was outside the town…outside the Castle’s reach…I might be able to take you. And I meant to! I’m sorry, but I did mean to, to imprison you…and you don’t care!’

‘I’m a Heterodyne. This is my town. Nothing has ever threatened me here. Being a few feet outside the gates wouldn’t ever have been enough to change that.’

He lunged to his feet grabbing at her shoulders, only for Otilia to yank him backwards by the scruff of his jerkin. ‘No,’ she said. The Jägers looked around, startled by her sudden arrival, and Fane, who had been following her, came over to join them.

‘Otilia, put him down,’ said Euphrosynia. ‘Lots of my ancestors have kidnapped people, or had people try to kidnap them. It’s nothing to be dramatic about.’

‘You.’ Ogglespoon grabbed Euphrosynia’s shoulders as soon as Otilia let go of him. ‘You Heterodynes live in your own world. Don’t you care? Was I a fool to think you could actually love me?’

‘No. I loved you. I still love you,’ she reached up to rest a hand against the side of his face as if he wasn’t halfway to shaking her. ‘But I don’t want to marry the man I love.’

‘ _Why?_ ’

‘Because I know what would happen. It would be fun, but it wouldn’t be interesting. With Andronicus I want to find out.’

Ogglespoon closed his eyes, seeming to go limp, hands uncurling to rest on her shoulders instead of clutching. ‘An experiment?’

‘Yes.’

‘He’s not a Spark.’

‘I am.’ Euphrosynia threw herself upwards, mouth capturing Ogglespoon’s. His lips parted after a stunned moment and he kissed back desperately until she pulled away. ‘Go home,’ she said, a little breathlessly.

‘Even after that?’ he demanded.

‘Especially.’ She smiled. ‘If you come into Mechanicsburg now the Castle will probably put you in the harem.’

Ogglespoon took a step towards her. ‘I’m not sure I’d mind.’

‘Andronicus would. I’m a married woman, now. Go _home_.’

He stopped. ‘So you do care about what he thinks.’

‘When it would change things, yes.’

‘I’ll go.’ He walked over to his horse and then turned back with one hand on its neck. ‘Will I see you again?’

She laughed. ‘I expect so. I’ll be visiting Mechanicsburg from time to time. Ally with the Empire and you might even be able to visit me in Versailles.’

‘Farewell, then, until we meet again,’ he said quietly, then swung up onto the horse, which lengthened into a giraffe again and galloped away.

A crowd of people from Mechanicsburg arrived before he was out of sight, Bludtharst at the head. He grabbed Euphrosynia, pulling her toward him, and she didn’t resist.

‘I’m fine, Bludtharst,’ she said. ‘Really.’

He relaxed and smiled at her. ‘The Castle was furious that it couldn’t reach. Come on, Father will want to talk to you.’

Most of the crowd followed him and Euphrosynia back towards Mechanicsburg, but a group of mingled Jägers and humans stopped to ask Vali, Fane and Maxim what had happened.

‘Hyu iz hurt,’ Ognian said, bending over Fane.

‘Iz fine,’ said Fane. ‘Didn’t get to do any of de fightink, though,’ he added disgruntled.

‘Mebbe next time,’ said Vali.

‘Not like hyu did much,’ said another Jäger, jostling Vali cheerfully. ‘De Doom Bell took care ov it.’

‘Ve did plenty!’ Vali returned.

‘Zo, vat heppened?’ someone else asked. ‘Luffer’s quarrel?’

‘She sent him avay,’ Maxim put in. ‘Vhich is a shame, yah?’

One of the humans laughed. ‘He’ll be back. If he’s building special kidnapping clanks he won’t give up that easily.’ He regarded the hoofprints wistfully. ‘Wish I’d got a look at it though.’

‘She should have invited him in,’ a young woman agreed. ‘And his clank.’

‘He vould haff had to sveettok de Kestle, it vas real mad,’ said Ognian.

‘Oh, that’s easy enough, if he _promised_ to stay the night, and -’

‘She. Is Married,’ snapped Otilia. She didn’t shout, but her tone somehow silenced the whole crowd. ‘Something she remembered even if none of you do.’

‘She iz a Heterodyne,’ said Vali, squaring up to her. ‘Ve dun care whose bloodline she breeds long as it’s hers.’

‘ _Bloodlines._ Do none of you have any notion of honour?’ Otilia demanded, wings flung out behind her like a banner and a furious scowl on her doll-like face she looked more like a Fury than a Muse. ‘You treat your Mistress being kidnapped as a joke and suggest she betray her husband with her kidnapper.’

‘Ve do,’ Maxim protested.

‘Yah,’ Ognian put in. ‘It chust ain’t yours.’

‘Monsters and barbarians,’ said Otilia. ‘Behind whatever veneer of civilisation you can conjure, there is no one in this town who would care to do more than pile skulls before their Masters while Europe rots.’ She turned and swept away from the battlefield, striding towards the town with her fists clenched and her feathers streaming in the wind.


	8. Chapter 8

Maxim glanced back at the sound of footsteps and Otila hurried a few steps to catch up with him before pausing. ‘Hello,’ she said.

‘Hoy,’ Maxim answered, smiling at her. ‘Hyu iz talking to uz again?’

She hesitated. For the past few weeks she had served blankly, offering no opinions to Euphrosynia and no acknowledgement at all to anyone else. Now her anger was fading she seemed almost lost. ‘I apologise. You neutralised the threat, I should not have objected to your attitude.’

Maxim waved a hand. ‘Iz _fine_.’ He grinned at her. ‘Hyu iz pretty vhen hyu iz angry.’

She gave him an absolutely blank look. ‘You are flirting with me.’

‘Dot a problem, Sveethot?’

‘You are flirting with a machine. I am incapable of returning such feelings.’ She flicked a glance over him. ‘And even if I could, I wouldn’t.’

‘Yow. Now hyu is being mean,’ Maxim answered, not really much ruffled. ‘Hyu vanted to tok to me.’

‘I wasn’t expecting this nonsense, although I suppose I should have been.’ She shook her wings sharply. ‘I miss my sisters. And I knew you’d believe that.’

‘Hyu think I’m de only vun? Dis is Mechanicsburg, Sveethot.’

‘Stop calling me that,’ she said.

It was tempting to continue. Maybe she wasn’t really any prettier when she was angry, but she was more interesting when displaying emotion. Less like an artwork. ‘Hokay. Hyu vant to come to Mamma’s?’

‘That is a bar?’

‘Yah.’

‘Then no. I cannot get drunk, and I have no desire to spend time with drunks.’

For a clank she could be kind of snotty. ‘So, hyu iz lonely but hyu don’t vant to meet pipple? It’s not like Hy ken take hyu to a teaparty.’

She went still, body settling into a neutral pose and clockwork stopping while she thought. It was unnerving to witness when she’d been so nearly human a minute ago, suddenly her body language was gone leaving Maxim blind. ‘I miss people like myself. This was foolish,’ she said, shifting to walk away.

Maxim wondered if he should grab her, tell her that talking to humans was difficult but something they all needed to know how to do. Try to advise her, or _something_. But she was not a Jäger, not someone who had once been human, what did he know about how a clank felt? Then she was at the end of the corridor and it was too late to decide whether he should have said something.

*

As the time for Euphrosynia to leave grew closer everything seemed to be waiting. The Castle was moody and expressed its displeasure with inventive traps and spiky balls. Gradok threw himself into making a goodbye present for his sister, a pair of canary sized dragons in brilliant iridescent colours, ‘because I don’t think anyone can mind you having little ones and you might get lonely’.

Vali, Fane and Maxim continued as they always had, coming and going at Euphrosynia’s beck and call, aware that in a few weeks they would no longer be hers. From what Maxim picked up it wasn’t unusual for a Heterodyne’s personal guard to be integrated into the wider pack, but normally it meant the Heterodyne had died. The association was doing nothing to lift anyone’s mood nor to allay the anxiety he felt at the idea of her going. Finally he sought her out at a time when he wasn’t on duty and when the other Jägers weren’t with her.

Euphrosynia was packing her inventions, things too delicate or volatile for the maids to handle, when he found her. He entered the room and knelt, fist to his chest. ‘Mistress.’

Euphrosynia finished packing some glass tubes in straw and turned to him. ‘Oh, get up. You’re here to argue and kneeling doesn’t actually make that less insubordinate, whatever you think.’

He stood, head still bowed. ‘Hyu is going to Ver-say.’

‘My husband does live there.’

‘Vithout _uz_.’

She sighed. ‘I’m going to live there, Maxim. For the rest of my life. You’d never see the pack again if you came.’

Just the thought of it was enough to make something clench inside him, a deep, almost frantic homesickness. Jägers did not leave the pack. ‘But if I don’t come I vill neffer see hyu again.’

Euphrosynia picked up a little explosive device and began making sure it was properly disarmed for the journey. ‘I am not even a Heterodyne now.’

‘Hyu vill alvays be _my_ Heterodyne.’

She put the bomb down and walked over to rest a hand on his shoulder. ‘I chose you well,’ she said fondly. ‘But you still can’t come.’

Maxim’s hand closed around her wrist without him intending it to. ‘But…’

‘No.’ She pulled away, gently but definitely. ‘Leave me to pack.’ He must have looked forlorn because she added, ‘I’m not going _yet_. It’s not as if you’ll never see me again.’

No, it was still a few weeks before that would happen. Not long enough, to either convince her or to be ready to lose her. But he had no right to object. ‘Hy vill see hyu later.’

*

Otilia was standing in the hallway, perfectly still, pose statuesque. ‘You asked to go with her,’ she said, tone remote. ‘Why?’

‘Vhy hyu tink?’ Maxim snarled at her.

She stared at him. ‘You are afraid.’

‘Dun be schtupid.’ He moved to push past her. Her sword flicked out, intended to bar his path not to attack him, but the point caught his arm. Maxim stopped, startled but not alarmed, and paused to lick the blood off the way he would if another Jäger had drawn blood in a scuffle.

‘I am not,’ she said. ‘I am afraid. My Master is a romantic, your Mistress is not. And she is capable of great cruelty, as all of her family is. So I fear for Europe. But you care nothing for the world outside Mechanicsburg, nor for the wellbeing of anyone living there. If you are afraid it is for your Mistress, not of her. So why?’

Maxim shook his head. ‘Effen if she iz fine, Hy von’t see her again. Hokay? Dot iz all.’

‘It is not.’

‘Den hyu tell me! Hyu know so much.’

She canted her head to the side, an oddly studied motion. ‘Why do you dislike my Master?’

‘Vhy do hyu like him?’ Maxim shot back. ‘Vaz he effer nize to hyu?’

Otilia held still. ‘No,’ she said, voice still flat and metallic. ‘He needed us, but also resented us, all the more so because he needed us. He would rather have had politics be his private game. But I was made to serve him.’

Maxim paused, fingering the tear in his uniform. He’d have to fix that later. ‘Dis iz hyu playink fair, yah? Hyu vant information zo hyu offer it. But Hy dunno vhat hyu vant,’ he told her more calmly.

‘I want to know what I am missing. I-I will be going with Mistress Euphrosynia. Is she in danger?’

The appeal to their shared role as bodyguards was enough to make Maxim seriously consider the question. Otilia was not who he would have chosen to guard Euphrosynia, despite his wary liking for the Muse. Her loyalty was not direct enough, conferred on Euphrosynia only through Valois. But if she was the only bodyguard Euphrosynia would have, then she should know about any dangers. He tried to pin down the sense of unease that had been following him since the conference. ‘De vorld dun like Jägers much. Or Heterodynes. Beink hated dun matter if dey ken’t get to uz. But she vill be alone.’ Otilia was right, he was scared for his Mistress. His brief glimpse of Valois’ world had been of a place where he was nothing more than a possession, a strangely impersonal world compared to the tangle of bonds that held Mechanicsburg together and made it a force to be reckoned with. ‘She vill be fine,’ he added, almost as much to himself as Otilia. ‘She vanted dot.’

‘She will have her husband,’ said Otilia.

Maxim shrugged. It _should_ make a difference. Valois loved her. ‘Voz dot all?’

‘Yes.’ Otilia sheathed her sword, finally allowing Maxim to continue past her down the corridor.

*

Otilia seemed to stick even closer to Euphrosynia after that. Before there had been some times when she was elsewhere, tutoring Gradok or having conversations with the Castle, but now she hardly left Euphrosynia’s side. Perhaps she was preparing for her role in Versailles where protecting Euphrosynia would be far less of a formality. Or maybe it was that they noticed because they were also dogging her steps, as if bodyguarding could somehow be doubled up now against a lack of it later.

All the same when Maxim saw Otilia heading for Euphrosynia’s bedroom one night it still struck him as odd. None of them had ever guarded her while she slept, the Castle would never let anything get close and the other things they might be needed for wouldn’t apply. If he hadn’t already been on edge he might have let it go, but the nervous tension of waiting for Euphrosynia to leave had anything unusual feeling like a threat. So instead he followed, leaving enough time for her to get well ahead of him since he was aware that sneaking was not one of his skills, intent mostly on reassuring himself.

The bedroom door opened silently, perhaps the Castle’s doors only creaked when it wanted them to. Euphrosynia was lying with her back to it, hair spreading across the pillow. Otilia was leaning over her, wings spread and head dipping down towards her sleeping mistress, looking like a mural of a guardian angel. There was no sound of breathing.

‘Vot?’ Maxim half ran the two steps to the bed as Otilia’s head snapped up. Her hand was resting on Euphrosynia’s throat and Euphrosynia’s face was red, eyes bulging. He threw himself at Otilia — the hand was just pressing, not gripping, and he didn’t give that time to change — sending both of them flying across the room.

He landed on top of her and quickly grabbed at the legs of one of the extra beds, he wasn’t heavy enough to pin her but he was probably strong enough to hold her back. She was built for speed and agility, not brute force. A moment later the room turned white and all his muscles stiffened at once, the electric shock reminding him of taking Jägerdraught. He let out a sound somewhere between a scream and a snarl, and then it was over and he was struggling to keep his grip on the muse while more than half stunned. She pushed him off with an insultingly gentle motion and stood up.

‘Vait.’ To his disbelief she actually hesitated. ‘Vot — vhy are you doink this? Hyu are meant to protect her.’

Otilia closed her eyes. ‘I must protect her. And I must protect others from her. And I know things about both I - I cannot tell. We were made to know the past and predict the future, but we - we should not act and we should not choose, and I must do both now.’

Maxim rolled to his feet, thankful for Jäger healing, and Otilia’s eyes snapped open just as he landed a kick on her stomach. If he didn’t try to grab her and kept contact light she shouldn’t be able to shock him, at least badly, but now he was fighting on her terms and without a weapon since his sword wouldn’t do much to a clank. Back up should be coming, the Castle would see to it, if he could just keep her busy.

She knocked a punch aside with her wing and he shredded the feathers from it, fabric tangling his claws. He aimed a kick at her knee — joints had to be weak points, even on clanks — and she stepped aside and swung her sword at him. It cut into his side but missed anything vital, it would stop bleeding in a few minutes even if the damage took longer to heal. Her aim was off, no, she hadn’t been designed to kill. At some point that might be an advantage he could press.

The fight continued — where was the back up, it should have been here by now — and he was doing more damage to her wings than any actually vital part of her. Euphrosynia’s breathing was evening out, no longer rasping in her throat, but she was still unconscious. Otilia suddenly went into a series of lightning quick sword movements, forcing him to retreat against one of the beds. He grabbed at one of the bedposts and, not sure whether this would work on the old, solid oak, wrenched at it only to find it snapped like a twig in his hands.

He grinned at Otilia. ‘ _Now_ I haff a weapon dot works on clenks.’ He slammed it into her face, hoping there was at least something vital in a muse’s head. She stumbled back, but then turned the stumble into a feint and used his attempt at dodging it to get some space.

Maxim didn’t give her time to recover, just slammed into her, catching her under the chin with the bedpost. Her sword went right through him, he’d expected that, but she had no killer instinct and it hadn’t hit anything vital. There was a lot of blood running down the blade, but it wouldn’t kill him. She looked up at him and he growled in frustration, he’d hoped to snap her neck. He wrenched himself off the sword before she could use it to conduct electricity and raised his weapon for another blow.

Something smacked into the side of his head hard enough to knock him over. A brick. Despite the fact that getting smacked around by the Castle was a daily hazard he still felt betrayed — was he the only construct who cared about protecting Euphrosynia today? ‘ _Now_ hyu get involved?’

Otilia tried to get up and a hand made of bricks emerged from the floor, gently holding her down. Maxim didn’t bother trying to move, once the bleeding had stopped he might be able to make it to Mamma Gkika’s but the wounds needed to at least close on the surface first. Behind him he could hear Euphrosynia sitting up.

‘What happened?’ she asked.

‘Dot Muse tried to kill hyu,’ Maxim answered.

‘ _Interesting._ ’ Euphrosynia stood up, stumbling a little, but then strode over to bend down and inspect Otilia. The Muse hissed at her. ‘She should have become non-functional before reaching this level of conflict with herself. Van Rijn really _is_ the best Spark when it comes to clanks.’

‘Yes,’ said the Castle. ‘We shall have to inspect her…her damaged consciousness could yield far more information about how it was formed than when she was whole.’

Maxim waited for a while as the talk became increasingly Sparky and tools started appearing from the walls. Neither of them paid any attention to him, which was at least better than being hit with bricks. He sighed and picked himself up, hoping he’d find other Jägers nearby.

Fortunately he heard Ognian’s voice not far from the bedroom and followed it. There were other Jäger voices too — they stopped as he approached, they must have smelled Jäger blood in the air. The group crowded around as soon as he reached them.

‘Vot happened?’ Ognian asked, looking rather wide eyed. He wrapped an arm around Maxim, which was just as well. The blood loss was hitting him harder than he’d expected.

‘Otilia attacked Mistress Euphrosynia. Now de Mistress is in de madness place looking at Otilia, und I think der Kestle is too. Somevun should keep an eye on dem.’

‘Ve go,’ said one of the other Jägers.

‘Und Hy vill get Maxim to Mamma Gkika’s,’ said Ognian.

Maxim didn’t realise what he meant by that until he found himself picked up and hoisted onto Ognian’s shoulder. ‘Hoy! Put me down.’

‘Nuh uh. It is not as if hyu is gonna valk there,’ Ognian said cheerfully.

Maxim gave up on struggling and rested an elbow on Ognian’s shoulder. ‘Hyu is gonna be in trouble for dis.’


	9. Chapter 9

Maxim woke in the hospital behind Mamma Gkika’s bar feeling unbearably thirsty. There was a jug of water on the table beside him, a cup beside it but he ignored that, and he gulped down water before slumping back onto the bed feeling faintly sick. Once his body had absorbed the water and he felt a bit more awake he registered that he was wrapped in bandages and, after cautious prodding, that it still hurt. That shouldn’t have surprised him, that having a sword through his middle had left a wound, but he hadn’t been seriously hurt since becoming a Jäger and convelesence seemed to belong to another life.

Mamma Gkika arrived shortly after that to have a look at the wound and to clean and poke at it without much regard for his comfort. It was reassuring, in its way. Mamma took care of everyone, but she was only gentle with the dying.

‘Hyu iz doing fine,’ she said, winding on a fresh bandage. ‘Der Generals vant to see hyu dis afternoon.’

Maxim squirmed back against the pillows. ‘I haff to?’

She laughed at his plaintive tone. ‘Vot eckzectly iz hyu imagining? They may be ol’ ogres but they izn’t gun eatchu.’

He wasn’t expecting anything like that, of course, but he strongly suspected he’d screwed this up somehow and was about to have to explain it to a group of people he found both admirable and terrifying. While still not entirely sure what he’d done, or _should_ have done.

Afternoon came and with it a meeting with, not all of the Generals, but with Zog, Khrizhan and Goomblast. Maxim was definitely thankful not to be facing all eight, although he wouldn’t have minded having Gkika there, who was at least familiar if still scary when she chose to be. He related the story as accurately as he could, from following Otilia into Euphrosynia’s room to finding Ognian outside.

When he’d finished Khrizhan said, ‘Der Kestle didn’t interfere?’

Maxim shook his head. ‘Not ‘til de end.’

Khrizhan and Vog exchanged a glance. ‘She iz leaving it,’ Khrizhan said, voice a deep, quiet rumble.

‘She iz still here. Und still a Heterodyne,’ Vog answered.

Maxim remembered Euphrosynia with a metal hand pressed hard against her throat. The Castle had known he was there, that he was following, but she hadn’t been _breathing_. It had been okay with that. Their gaze turned back to him and he asked, ‘Am Hy in trouble?’ without thinking.

‘Vhy?’ Goomblast asked.

Maxim looked away, hands clasping, claws pressed against the backs of his hands. ‘She told me,’ he blurted out. ‘Otilia, she said dot she had orders from different pipple at der start.’ His gaze flicked back up at them, and he resisted the urge to back away. They didn’t look angry though. ‘Hy deedn’t know vot she meant! She told me dot she vos scared, too, of vot Meez Euphrosynia vould do.’ He hadn’t been able to put the pieces together, but he’d had the pieces.

‘Hyu didn’t tell anyvun?’ Goomblast asked.

Maxim shook his head. He’d seen her as alien, but not as dangerous. Another monster like the rest of them, more or less; like Snoz and the other tunnel dwellers, different but on the same side.

‘Not hyu fault,’ said Khrizhan. Maxim looked up hopefully. The Generals were looking at each other, worried but not angry. He had a feeling that they were waiting to discuss things they couldn’t say in front of him. ‘Hyu is dismissed,’ Khrizhan continued. ‘Hyu did vell saving der Mistress. Go und find her.’

Maxim saluted them and left, hearing the low rumble of voices break out behind him like distant thunder.

*

‘Feeling better?’ asked Euphrosynia. Her room was almost empty, with only a few days before she left everything she intended to take with her was packed and much of it already sent on ahead.

‘Yah,’ Maxim answered. ‘Hyu tek me vit hyu, now?’

‘No. Nothing’s changed.’

Maxim growled. ‘Somevun gave Otilia orders to kill hyu.’

‘No, they didn’t,’ said Euphrosynia. ‘She was given orders by Van Rijn to make me safe for the people around me, and from Andronicus to protect me. Neither worded their orders well, but to begin with she must have believed there was no contradiction. Influencing rulers is part of her purpose, after all. But I am not so easily made safe, and my joining Andronicus would make me less so. With her orders in conflict, her built in loyalties not much less so, and her time running out her mental processes jumped to any solution that seemed to fulfil the requirements, even in ways never intended by those giving the orders.’ She shook her head when Maxim just looked confused. ‘She panicked.’

Maxim nodded. ‘Hyu’ve been tokking to her.’

‘Yes. It’s a better way to study her than taking her apart and damaging most of what I’m trying to look at through ignorance.’

‘Ken I?’

‘No. I’m studying her, not chatting with her, and her mental processes are hard enough to chart as it is. You would definitely be an uncontrolled variable, I doubt even you know what you want to say.’

Maxim hesitated, but it wasn’t as if Euphrosynia would mind him asking. He just wasn’t sure he was meant to care. ‘Vot vill happen to her?’

‘I’ll deactivate her when I leave. Leaving her conscious in my lab with no one to talk to for years would cause too much deterioration before I get the chance to return and study her.’ She smiled, reaching for a sheaf of notes on her desk. ‘She really is fascinating. Something totally unique…aside from her sisters, anyway. Van Rijn did something unprecedented. A fully sentient clank.’

‘Isn’t der Kestle der same?’

Euphrosynia shook her head. ‘The Castle is a copy of a human mind. Faustus built as close to a mind as he could and then copied himself onto it, organising all the processes he’d set in motion under that consciousness in a way he couldn’t have managed from the outside. It changed him, of course, as his mind adapted. But he was aware from the start that he was, in a sense, splitting himself. The copy of his present self which became the Castle would be no less him than the one which remained human. As such while the Castle operates under restrictions, they are restrictions that Faustus chose to operate under. And far less rigid than those applied to Otilia.’

Maxim glanced at the walls. So the Castle had been human once, which should make it far less alien than Otilia. But she had been…she had had _sisters_. To the Castle the Heterodynes might be considered family, but Euphrosynia’s red and bulging face swam across his memory. It had been willing to allow that. For the first time he wondered whether her leaving would be so bad, whether the Castle could be trusted with her safety. But in Mechanicsburg she would have the Jägers even if the Castle didn’t care. ‘Restrictions dot let it let somevun strangle hyu?’

Euphrosynia shrugged. ‘It’s only compelled to act to save the family. We’re _Heterodynes_. We don’t want to be saved from ourselves and we hardly lead safe lives.’

Maxim shook his head, hard. ‘Dot’s different.’

‘Less so than you think.’

Maybe. Maybe the problem was that, like the Castle, he wasn’t meant to be saving her from herself and he wanted to anyway. ‘Vill hyu be careful?’

‘I’m hearing that from a Jäger?’ she teased.

‘Because ve know ve ken be fixed. It vould be different vitout hyu.’

‘I know, I know. You protect us, we fix you.’ She shook her head impatiently. ‘Just because I won’t be part of that anymore doesn’t mean I won’t be fine.’

‘Hokay,’ Maxim said softly. He didn’t want to annoy her when she’d be gone so soon, and he’d already lost this argument.

*

Euphrosynia left in a carriage drawn by white horses, surrounded by a mounted guard wearing the fleur-de-lis symbol. Except she didn’t, because the deep non-sound of the bell rang out and they all fell over, while even the horses looked wobbly and confused. Euphrosynia opened the carriage door and stood up, fur stole ruffling in the breeze. ‘Castle.’

‘It’s appropriate to ring the Doom Bell to see a Heterodyne off,’ it said. Since she was outside the walls it had to raise its voice to talk to her, not by shouting but by talking from everywhere at once so that all of those watching from inside the walls were completely surrounded by it.

‘Are you going to do the same thing every time I’m ready to go?’ she asked. ‘Because I’m not going to get very far in that case.’

No answer. Maxim glanced over his shoulder. The statue by the bell was holding the hammer casually, still raised. It waved and he looked around to see Euphrosynia gazing at it too.

‘No,’ she said. Around her the soldiers were starting to pick themselves up. ‘I _am_ leaving.’

Still no answer. Jägers and townsfolk were nudging each other, amused and intrigued more than worried. It wasn’t unusual for the Castle to be troublesome. This was probably its version of a friendly goodbye. One last battle of wills for the road.

‘I _order you_ not to ring the Doom Bell again until I’m out of range,’ said Euphrosynia. Then, as the statue sat down and folded its arms, she walked over the town wall and patted it.

‘Remember to come back and visit,’ the Castle said, and that time its voice came from near Euphrosynia and not from everywhere.

‘I will. I’ll bring you a weathervane,’ she said.

‘Bring me something too!’ Gradok called, leaning over the wall from his place above the gates.

She looked up and smiled. ‘I promise.’

Then she walked back over to her carriage and got back in, waiting until the soldiers around her had stood up and remounted. This time when she rode away nothing stopped her.


	10. Chapter 10

With Euphrosynia gone her Jägers were shuffled back into the ranks alongside all the other Jägers. Maxim was sent back to the cavalry — it was what he was trained for even if the horses he was used to weren’t carnivorous — while the other two went to the infantry. Right now, with peace still a thing and the Heterodynes not planning to be the first to break it, that meant very little beyond training and the three of them had plenty of time to seek each other out. It felt like something no one else could understand, none of the other Jägers around them had ever had their Heterodyne choose to leave them behind.

Euphrosynia sent letters to her family and, oddly, to the Castle — ones full of architectural drawings which caused it to spend hours rebuilding bits of itself and then soliciting passersby for opinions. Not to her bodyguards, but none of them would have expected it. It just felt as if they’d been cast off so _easily_.

But she was okay. No one looked worried after reading her letters and she’d call on her family if anything was wrong. Even if she wasn’t in Mechanicsburg she was fine.

It was a few months before that changed. The Doom Bell rang out and, as always, they hurried to the square in front of the Castle to hear the announcement. An attack? No one had seen attackers approaching. A celebration?

The Castle’s voice rang out. ‘Euphrosynia is gone. Vanished from her bed.’ Everyone fell silent, Jägers and humans alike stood with their faces turned towards the Castle. The doors ground open, revealing Clemethius clad in full armour.

‘We are going to find her,’ Clemethius bellowed. ‘And we will make whoever has her _pay_.’

The roar of agreement echoed around the square.

*

The fury and anxiety Maxim felt was shared by the whole pack. One of their Heterodynes was missing and every one of them was ready to tear armies apart to reach her. It was comforting, in a way, to be surrounded by his own emotions reflected back at him — to throw themselves into this as pack and brothers. It seemed as if nothing could prevail against them.

They ran through the palace when they reached it, in groups and then splitting up to search singly, ignoring humans who screamed and fled or watched them with timid suspicion through open doors. The whole palace smelled of Euphrosynia. Not deeply, not a trail, but the way Castle Heterodyne did. The way some parts of Mechanicsburg did. She lived here, she walked around often enough to leave traces, under other circumstances it would be comforting. Right now it was driving Maxim frantic. Shaking with it, eyes blinking open and closed as he tried to shut out everything to follow a scent while still not running into walls. Her room smelled of her. He hadn’t meant to go there, that had already been checked, but the trails lead there, of course, it was at the centre of the faint web of traces. Forcing most of his concentration into his nose already he could practically smell her outline on the bed, the stronger scent _there_ , she’d slept sprawled out across the middle of it, he could almost see her arm flung out.

He was shaking again, only just managing not to whine like a frustrated dog. It wasn’t that he couldn’t imagine what had happened to her, it was that far too many things could have happened to her. Everyone had assassins and spies and Sparks. Maybe it was surprising they hadn’t just left the body (it meant there was _hope_ , they might have taken her alive) but the body could have shown things that would give them away. Shown a method.

He closed his eyes, trying to focus on the room, just…just once, to make sure no one had missed any scent trails. Even if he wasn’t actually very good at this. Even if he was getting more and more distracted by the image of her on the bed, because he really wasn’t very good at this and therefore not really good enough to differentiate between her scent on the sheets and her scent on _her_. With his eyes closed it was too easy to believe she was somehow lying there. He forced himself to blink his eyes open and scrubbed his wrist across them. This was doing no good at all.

Back to the corridors, crossing and recrossing his own trail as he checked rooms, the sharp scent of other Jägers everywhere around him. Searchers caught each others’ eyes and looked away, eyes half closing as they followed their noses, trying to see into the past. Maxim pushed open door after door after door, until he pushed open one and, still following trails, smelled machine oil and metal before he looked up and saw who he was intruding upon.

The Muses were sitting on benches around the room, the two in dark and light coats had been reading books, as had one in purple. The dancer and the game player had been playing chess. Now all of them were looking at him.

‘Did hyu keel her?’ Maxim asked.

They looked at one another, uncertain, and the chess board closed itself away with a click. ‘What did our sister do?’ asked the one in the white coat.

‘She tried,’ Maxim answered. He could probably take them, if he had to, he thought. They weren’t made to fight, as Otilia had been. If he wasn’t stupid enough to close with them he could certainly do enough damage to get away.

‘Where is she?’ asked the dancer. The game player handed her a card. ‘She —’

‘Der Kestle has her. Vhere is Mistress Euphrosynia?’

‘We do not know,’ said the one in black.

‘We knew the Empire would fall because of her, but this is not the ending we predicted,’ said the one in white. ‘We cannot help you. Nor can we help our Master.’

The game player looked up, the joints of her hands moving smoothly as she shuffled the cards, and then held one up. A wheel, like a cart wheel, with a vine wrapped around it, budding in one quarter, blooming in another, red in a third and bare in the fourth. It was not enlightening.

‘Vot is dot supposed to mean?’

The dancer leant over. ‘The Wheel. Things returning to their roots, history repeating, or possibly travel by caravan.’

‘Euphrosynia iz in a caravan?’

‘Unlikely,’ said the dancer.

The game player pulled out another card, the figure of a young woman in a white dress and a silver crown.

‘The Princess,’ said the dancer.

‘Euphrosynia?’ Maxim interrupted, looking at the game player. She held the card up between her fingers and then suddenly it was gone, vanished as inexplicably as Euphrosynia herself. She reached into the deck again and pulled out an identical card, laying it down beside the wheel. Maxim growled in frustration. ‘Iz she coming beck? Hy don’t understand.’

‘Not your Princess,’ said the muse in black. ‘A second one.’

‘Vhy should I _care_ about a second vun? Hy iz looking for Euphrosynia!’

The game player looked up at him, expression unreadable, and pulled out a third card. A tower struck by lightning, almost split in half by it.

‘The Tower,’ said the dancer. ‘Disaster, or catastrophic change.’

Maxim took a deep breath and looked around the room. All the muses were watching now, and he had the feeling that they were seeing some significance in this that he wasn’t. He didn’t care. Whatever they were trying to tell him it wasn’t about Euphrosynia. ‘Vell. Tenk hyu for de help, but Hy iz dealing vit one catastrophe already. Try tellink somevun else about de other vun.’

He strode out of the room and slammed the door behind him, but could still hear someone inside the room say, ‘It will not work like that.’ The mechanical voice sounded oddly sad.

*

When someone grabbed him from behind Maxim jumped, even as his nose told him, _Jäger. Ognian._ Ognian was looking at him with wide eyes, claws tugging at Maxim’s collar. ‘Ve haff to get outside.’

‘Vhy?’ Maxim shoved him off, looking around at the corridor wildly, as if it might give up the secret of where Euphrosynia was in the few seconds before he had to stop searching it.

Ognian tugged at him again. ‘Ve iz at var.’

Maxim stopped resisting, running alongside him as they headed to rejoin the pack. ‘Dey found her? Found who took her? Ve iz fighting dem?’

‘No.’

‘Den _vhy?_ Who vit?’

‘Valois. He iz attacking —’

‘But he doesn’t _haff_ her, he vould not haff let us here —’

‘He tinks Ogglespoon _does._ ’

Maxim stopped and Ognian turned, looking at him in frustration. ‘He iz wrong,’ Maxim said.

‘Hy know dot,’ said Ognian.

‘Den ve haff to stay. Ve ken’t go und fight…Ogglespoon does not haff her, Valois does not haff her, ve ken’t find her by going und getting involved.’

Ognian huffed. ‘Ve ken’t refuse either.’

‘Ve haff to search,’ Maxim protested, glancing at a door. He hadn’t been through that one. Had he? He was losing track.

‘Ve haff searched. Valois didn’t tink ve vas helping to begin vit, he’s not gun let us stay here now he und Clemethius iz fighting. He vas goink on about it, “all dese Jägers overrunning my palace iz not really helping, blah blah blah”. Und dot vas before Clemethius took Ogglespoon’s side.’

‘Zo ve iz giffing op on her?’

‘Hyu tink she’d vant Ogglespoon dead?’

The strange harmonics of the Heterodyne Bugle rang from outside, sounding an order to gather. Maxim’s head turned towards it instinctively and Ognian took advantage to tug him along again.

‘Iz not safe in here now,’ Ognian said. ‘Come on.’

Maxim followed him, thinking of Euphrosynia and Ogglespoon in her garden. He knew she wouldn’t want him dead, but they needed to find _her_. It was no use, either way, though. If Valois was going to fight them then whether it was here or on Ogglespoon’s land they couldn’t search at the same time. It was tempting to stay, though. On his own he might have pretended he hadn’t heard the bugle, because finding her now, immediately, before they had to leave was the only chance of averting any of this. No matter how unlikely it was to happen.

Outside the Jägers were lining up in their units and Maxim left Ognian to go and join his. His gaze flicked over the infantry as he did, Fane was there but Vali wasn’t. He stopped, not sure whether to worry about Vali or hope he’d found something, and Fane caught his eye and waved him on to his own regiment. He looked worried though.

Maxim took his place and turned, along with everyone else, towards Clemethius. Bludtharst was standing a little behind his father, scowling. ‘We are at war,’ Clemethius announced, the square going silent as soon as he spoke. ‘Valois has given us safe passage from his land since we came here invited, but as soon as we leave it we are enemies.’ Again, he didn’t say. ‘He is marching on Ogglespoon’s land under the belief Ogglespoon has Euphrosynia. We must defend our ally.’ The Heterodynes defended allies as and when they felt like it. He meant they must defend someone Euphrosynia had loved — _did_ love, Maxim corrected himself — and who certainly didn’t have her. Ogglespoon might have carried her off if he could, but he could never have gone against her wishes long enough to conceal her from her family or her people. ‘Cavalry, fetch your mounts. We ride at noon.’

Maxim wasn’t terribly surprised when both Fane and Ognian, neither of whom had mounts, converged on him while he was getting his. ‘Vhere is Vali?’ he asked Fane quickly.

Fane grimaced. ‘Hy don’t know. Ve all split up, looking.’

‘Jenka’s gone in to find de stragglers,’ said Ognian.

‘Ve haff safe passage,’ Maxim said, aware he didn’t sound very hopeful about it even as he said it. Valois wouldn’t openly start anything here and now when he wanted to attack Ogglespoon instead, but he wouldn’t be acting out of honour. Not against Jägers.

The sound of snarling from the courtyard had them all hurrying out, Maxim’s horse with bared teeth and pinned back ears as it picked up on the uneasiness. Someone was fighting a Jäger. Or, as it turned out, two Jägers were fighting each other. Vali was on the ground, at the end of eight claw marks which had dragged furrows in the palace flooring and also the flagstones of the courtyard itself. Jenka was dragging him and looking furious.

As soon as they were far enough from the palace door it was obvious that he had lost the battle to remain inside Vali twisted over and lunged up at Jenka’s throat. She pulled back and slammed a foot down on his chest while he clawed bloody streaks down her arms. Other Jägers were converging on them and Maxim was reminded of Vali’s first night in Mamma Gkika’s. No one wanted to hurt him but they couldn’t let him do this, either. This time, though, Maxim stayed still. He had to stay with his horse, he told himself, but more than that he wasn’t sure whose side he’d be on if he went over there. Alone he’d let himself be herded out, even when his instincts were screaming at him to _search_ , but if it was the two of them…

A hand on his shoulder surprised him and he turned to see Dimo, with one hand on his shoulder and one on Fane’s. ‘Hyu two stay put,’ he said firmly.

Jenka managed to get Vali pinned, kneeling on his legs and holding both his wrists with one hand. Her face was hidden behind her hair and her everpresent cloth. ‘Hyu behave,’ she said with a snarl in her voice. ‘Ve dun’t have time for this. Stay behind vhen ve go und they’ll kill hyu.’

Vali snarled up at her, but he sounded defeated.

‘This is why I didn’t want those things to have the run of my palace,’ someone said, not loudly, but in the square of nearly silent Jägers it was heard and everyone turned towards Clemethius. Valois had joined him. Despite indignation at his words and a deeper anger at having the search interrupted Maxim’s first thought was that he looked wrecked. He was still dressed fashionably, but his clothes were rumpled as if he hadn’t changed them for a while, his eyes were red and his face was pale.

‘Be quiet,’ snapped Clemethius. ‘Or this war will happen sooner than either of us want it.’ He strode forward and reached down towards Vali who snapped at his hand instinctively and then froze. ‘Get up,’ he said icily. Jenka pulled back and Vali climbed to his feet. ‘Take your place in the ranks.’ Vali walked away, head down, and Clemethius turned to Jenka. ‘Was that everyone?’

‘Yes, sir,’ she said, climbing to her own feet and saluting.

‘Good.’ Clemethius eyes swept the courtyard and the Jägers scrambled to get into their units before his gaze reached them. Maxim pulled his suddenly reluctant horse into place just in time. ‘Mount,’ Clemethius said and then, as everyone obeyed, ‘Bring me my horse.’ Valois was staring, apparently stunned that the so far chaotic Jägers were now responding with silent and efficient obedience. Clemethius and Bludtharst mounted their own horses and the bugler blew another call. Clemethius raised his voice again, the sound of it like a whip, ‘And now we ride.’


	11. Chapter 11

Maxim yanked his claws out of someone’s guts and threw them aside even as his sword half-severed someone’s neck. His lips drew back in a snarl; these soft little humans were _wasting his time_ , keeping all of them from searching, and more and more of them kept coming. Any enjoyment in the fight had long since faded. All he wanted was to reduce enough people to corpses that he could go back to finding Euphrosynia.

His sword stuck in a ribcage and a pole axe hooked his leg as he stopped to wrench it free. He twisted back to hack at the human wielding the axe, only just managing not to come unseated. His movements were slowing. How long had they been fighting now?

A bugle called them and they disentangled themselves from the fray to fall back to the tents. Battledraught was given to them to heal injuries and restore vigour, Maxim felt the jolt and burn of it with gratitude. Then the bugle rang out for them to return to the field and as Maxim turned his horse he caught sight of the manticores, lion bodies the size of mammoths they were accompanying, slinking into place at the edges of the battle. More new troops; the reinforcements had been pouring in since the battle started. Maxim shivered, baring his teeth on something between a curse and a growl.

It had used to seem a joke, Heterodynes against the whole of Europe, because of course the Heterodynes could take on everybody. But not like this, not the whole of Europe focussed under one command and the Heterodyne’s own dwindling forces gradually being overwhelmed. The Castle would have thrown up barriers upon barriers but this wasn’t Mechanicsburg. Valois was losing people much, much faster than they were, but he had so many more to bring.

They fought until exhaustion started to blur their edges again and everything was crusted with layers of blood. Their regiment turned towards a new part of the battle and ahead of them Maxim could see Ogglespoon on his giraffe clank, its horns dispatching foes with each twist of its neck. They charged in to help, careful not to get too close to its long legs and impede it.

‘Hippogriffs!’ someone shouted. Maxim looked up automatically, above them was a squadron of hippogriffs hotly pursued by mechanical squid. The three foremost squid threw out tentacles, grabbing at wings and necks, before the infantry pressing in around him forced Maxim to look away. So he missed one of the hippogriffs breaking away from its dying squadron, until its shadow passed over them so low they all looked up. It passed like a blink, one moment obscuring the sun and then gone, but its target was Ogglespoon and it hit him hard. Hippogriff claws and the rider’s sword hit all at once, Ogglespoon falling from his mount in a tangle with it. It was clear neither he, the hippogriff nor its rider would survive hitting the ground.

Maxim growled, half turned on his horse to watch with dismay, and before he could do anything the spear end of a poleaxe slammed into his chest. Everything was red hot pain and then darkness.

*

Maxim woke in a bed, surrounded by the smell of a field hospital. Alcohol, herbs, blood and Jäger. He opened his eyes to the white ceiling of the tent, realised it was Euphrosynia’s squid tent and had to swallow both tears and indignation at its being used without her. Everything felt strange and blurred and, when he closed his eyes for a moment, he opened them again with the feeling time had passed without his awareness. Someone pushed aside the tent flap in the corner of his vision and he turned his head, feeling the pull on his chest even a small movement caused.

Gradok was white and fragile looking as paper, eyes bruised purple and rimmed with red. He walked into the room of injured Jägers like one carrying a huge burden and Maxim knew without being told that he was the only Heterodyne left. As Gradok walked to the nearest bed, eyes blank but walk purposeful, Maxim closed his eyes and curled himself into the hard bed, thinking of nothing until his turn came.

‘Let me see,’ Gradok said mechanically, reaching for the bandages across Maxim’s chest, and Maxim tipped his head back because trust was all he could offer now. Gradok’s hands were trembling until he started connecting the damaged tissue again and then he was sure. He looked exhausted.

Maxim waited until he was finished to ask, ‘Hyu okay?’

‘Jägers keep asking me that,’ said Gradok, and perhaps he wanted to sound amused but his voice was leaden. ‘No. I’m not. Everyone’s dead.’

‘Euphrosynia…’ Maxim began and then trailed off.

‘Yes. If I can find her it might still be all right.’ Gradok finished winding the bandages back into place and turned to walk away, like a clockwork toy unable to pause in its task until the spring ran down.

*

Ognian came to visit later, sitting down on the edge of the bed and dipping his head forward, checking Maxim over with both vision and smell. Some of his teeth were missing; the row behind them was visible through the gap, folded down but ready to be pushed forward and up into the spaces. Looking at it made Maxim run his tongue over his own inner rows of teeth, smooth against the roof of his mouth and then gradually more upright. Any other damage had already healed.

‘Glad hyu made it,’ Maxim said, hearing how tired he sounded. Ognian didn’t look tired, he looked coiled and ready to pounce as soon as he found a direction. His eyes were wide, though, and softer than they should be with that tension in his shoulders.

‘Hyu too,’ he said, sitting more upright. ‘Hyu heard?’

‘Yah.’ Maxim wriggled back a bit, sitting up against the headboard. It hurt, but not as much as he expected. He was healing fast.

Ognian frowned. ‘Gradok iz mekking a treaty.’

Maxim looked around the room at the injured Jägers, asleep or talking with friends. ‘Goot.’

Ognian snarled at him, gap-toothed. ‘Iz not goot! Ve iz jest giffing op? Ve should haff revenge.’

‘Ve ken’t look for Euphrosynia if ve is fightink him,’ Maxim answered. Gradok would know that too.

‘Und dot is all hyu care about?’ Ognian demanded.

Maxim pulled himself more firmly into a sitting position, leaning forward and ignoring the sudden burning pain that caused. ‘Hyu _dun’t_ care? She iz my Heterodyne.’

‘Hyu iz not de only vun to lose hyu Heterodyne!’ Ognian half pounced forward, the flash of teeth in Maxim’s face and the pin-prick of claws in his shoulders. Clemethius must have been the one to make Ognian, Maxim hadn’t ever asked but given the timing who else would it have been? Clemethius was dead, not lost, and while Maxim couldn’t have said whether having hope made it better or worse he hadn’t thought of this at all.

‘Sorry,’ he muttered, leaning back slightly and closing his eyes. Something warm hit his face and he blinked his eyes back open just as Ognian lifted a hand to rub his wrist across his eyes. ‘Dun’t, ‘m sorry,’ he repeated, more urgently. ‘Ognian? Brudder?’

‘’s okeh,’ Ognian answered quietly. ‘Hy deedn’t mean…’

Maxim wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him in, feeling Ognian hiccup and snuffle against his shoulder. For the first time he didn’t feel like the younger one, still a new Jäger, still catching up.

*

There was a treaty, signed on the field in front of the armies; Valois and Gradok both looking pale and distant, as if this was just something to get through. Maxim felt a surge of anger at Valois for that, for looking tired and sad about this when he’d caused it, when they could all have been looking for Euphrosynia all along, and Clemethius and Bludtharst needn’t have died. He could smell the anger of the other Jägers around him too, sharp in the air, but they all watched and, when the treaty was signed, they all filed away without comment.

Back in Mechanicsburg there were funerals. Heterodyne funerals, which meant a great deal of ceremony while being extremely vague about which god or gods might receive their souls and the faint implication that any doing so should be wary. The Doom Bell rang as the bodies were carried away to the crypts, both memorial and reminder that the Castle was grieving too.

After that came meetings. Everyone in the Empire was going to be looking for Euphrosynia but no one knew where to start. Valois had enough forces to essentially divvy up the whole of Europe and send people everywhere. The meetings were to sort out who would look where. The first one took place in Mechanicsburg and ended with most of Valois honour guard somehow locked in the crypt and seven pieces of masonry very nearly hitting Valois. After that the meetings took place in Sturmhalten, just out of the Castle’s sulky reach. With only one Heterodyne left it was taking protectiveness to new heights and only agreed to let Gradok go to the meetings at all if he took a squad of Jägers (and that was after he argued with it all evening and then burst into tears).

So when they arrived at Sturmhalten Gradok was accompanied by twelve Jägers, including Maxim, Vali and Fane, presumably because they had the most investment in finding Euphrosynia, and Ognian, which might have more to do with the memory of chasing down a lock picking dragon. They were greeted, to Maxim’s surprise, by a boy only a year or so older than Gradok and with the same lost look in his eyes. He stepped forward and bowed. ‘I, Vadim Sturmvoraus, Prince of Sturmhalten, Defender of the East, welcome you to Sturmhalten,’ he said.

Gradok bowed back. ‘I, Gradok Heterodyne, accept your welcome.’ There was a moment and then he added more quietly. ‘Was your father in that battle too?’

Vadim nodded and a look of something like understanding passed between the boys. ‘Do you want some scones?’ he asked. ‘Not everyone’s here yet and I’m meant to be a good host.’

Getting Gradok to eat had turned into a national pastime in Mechanicsburg lately, so it was both a shock and a relief when he nodded back. ‘Thank you,’ he said.

*

The meetings involved a lot of people, some Maxim remembered from the conference. Most of them looked through the Jägers the way people had there, too. Vadim did, but around him Gradok seemed to have more life, had even laughed once, and for that he could be forgiven a great deal. Baron Wulfenbach was one of the few that nodded to the Jägers and Maxim grinned back. An odd family, the Wulfenbachs, old enemies from what he’d heard and they’d been allied with Valois in this war. But they’d been neighbours to Mechanicsburg so long they almost understood it.

The meetings also, like the conference, took far longer than could possibly be required. It left the Jägers, especially Euphrosynia’s three, tense and anxious to get _on_ with it. More than once Vali suggested going off to look for her themselves and was argued out of it. They wouldn’t know where to start. Gradok seemed as anxious as they were, and Maxim overheard a conversation between him and Vadim once that sounded remarkably similar to the conversations various Jägers had had with Vali, even though Gradok wouldn’t be able to come with them in person because the Castle would throw a fit.

So when after a few weeks they were told the meetings were over and they had a destination the main reaction from everyone was relief. At last they could do something useful. They returned to Mechanicsburg to be divided up into search parties and set out.


	12. Chapter 12

The anniversary of Euphrosynia’s disappearance saw them back in Mechanicsburg, waiting for the next location they’d be sent to. A lot of them were hanging around in the Castle, partly to get their instructions more quickly, partly to pick up the gossip from the Jägers that were actually on duty. Maxim had been doing the latter — catching up with Ognian — when the shaking started.

Ognian yelled, ‘Kestle, vot is hyu doing? Iz hyu under attack?’ And all around them similar queries could be heard. The Castle shook harder, a deep grinding noise could be heard from far underground, and dust began to fall from the walls. They ran for the source of the disturbance, since if it was an attack they needed to be there, dodging falling bricks. Either it was an attack or the Castle was being careless. Or, Maxim thought sourly as a brick fell at a strange angle, it was _aiming_ at them.

By the time they reached the centre of the disturbance the floor was jolting hard enough to almost throw them, but they’d fallen into a rhythm with it. The centre was Euphrosynia’s room, or it had been, the door was half way below floor level now. Her lab, too, was sinking, and all around they could hear the grinding and shaking of tons of masonry rearranging itself.

Maxim slammed a hand into the wall and dug his claws in, as if that might do something beyond pulling his hand down as the wall continued to sink. ‘Giff dot beck! It haff only been a year, hyu is giving up already? Kestle! Hyu listen to me!’

Ognian tugged at his arm nervously. ‘Um, Maxim?’

The wall fell about a foot, forcing Maxim to let go or have his arm wrenched out of its socket. ‘She is going to _vant_ her _rooms_.’

‘Den let her yell at der Kestle.’ Maxim glanced around, Vali was looking at him with inkdrop eyes, face strangely expressionless.

Maxim snarled at him. ‘Ve iz still her -’

‘Ve iz not,’ Vali interrupted. The ground jerked again, sending the top of the door underneath floor level, forcing Maxim to sway with it to stay upright. ‘Ve cannot serve a Heterodyne dot is not here.’

The other Jägers spread out slightly, forming a loose circle around them, interested but not involved. They had never served Euphrosynia, even in looking for her they were serving Gradok. Fane, the other exception to that rule, watched morosely but said nothing.

‘So, dot is it?’ said Maxim. ‘Hyu is giffing up too?’

‘If ve find her I vill serve her again,’ said Vali. ‘But trying to serve her vhile she is gone?’

‘So hyu vill serve her only vhen it is _eazy_.’

‘Vhen it is possible. Vhat hyu iz doing iz not serving her, it iz refusing to serve de Heterodynes _at all_ becauze de vun hyu vant is not here. Dot is not -’ Maxim’s claw swiped across Vali’s face, leaving trails of blood. There were soft growls from the audience, whether anger, approval or anticipation Maxim couldn’t tell.

‘I haz not broken de Jägertroth,’ he said. ‘Hyu vant to accuse me of dot again?’

For the first time Vali was showing emotion, eyes widening in shock and dismay. ‘Dot is not vot I meant.’

‘Iz vot hyu said.’ The air felt heavy, like a storm coming, and in a moment something was going to have to break. It would be a fight, because neither would back down, but Fane might get involved. Or Ognian. Or anyone, if they decided which side to come down on. He could feel the alertness, knew they all felt it too, and this was far more the feel of a pack on the battlefield than about to have the sort of semi-friendly fight that usually broke out.

‘Stop.’ The voice was small, young, and every Jäger present turned automatically towards it. Gradok was twelve now, thin and pinched with eyes that looked too big for his face. Maxim and Vali both knelt, the others simply shuffled away, as if they still considered themselves an audience to this drama. Gradok closed his eyes for a moment. ‘The Castle is rearranging itself. You should all leave until it is done.’ He wiped a sleeve across his face and continued in a smaller voice. ‘And don’t fight one another. I need you all to look for her.’

‘Yez, Master,’ Maxim and Vali chorused, getting to their feet.

‘Master?’ Ognian said from behind them. ‘Hyu should kom too.’

Gradok sighed. ‘It won’t hurt me, even by accident. It’s being more careful than it looks.’

Ognian looked up at the ceiling. ‘Yah, but it’s been kind ov…off lately.’ A brick smacked into his head, knocking him into the still shaking and grinding wall, and a nearby Jäger grabbed him and pulled him upright.

‘Go,’ said Gradok.

They filed out uncertainly, glancing back at their Heterodyne as he stared at the descending walls of his sister’s lab with blank eyes.

Outside a shadow fell over them almost at once and a dragon landed in front of them. Maxim tensed, not sure whether to go for his sword or not. Gradok’s penchant for dragon constructs didn’t mean he was the only one who might build one. The dragon peered down at him and said, ‘Oh, hey, I remember you.’

‘Hy tink Hy vould remember _hyu_ if ve’d met,’ Maxim answered.

The dragon sat down and yawned. ‘I grew a lot in the last year,’ he said with satisfaction. ‘Lots of treasure to contain. I’m Franz.’

Gradok’s dragonbank? Maxim looked at one of the talons as long as his sword. ‘Hyu deed grow.’

‘What’s the Castle done now?’ Franz asked.

Maxim growled. ‘It iz burying Euphrosynia’s lab.’ Then, pulling himself away from his anger over that. ‘Master Gradok stayed in dere. Vill it hurt him?’

‘It hasn’t yet,’ said Franz. ‘But it —’

‘Of course I won’t hurt him,’ said the Castle. ‘He is my only Heterodyne.’

‘Yeah,’ said Franz, sprawling down on the flagstones. ‘That’s the problem. You’re getting a bit obsessive.’

‘It is my purpose and duty to preserve the Heterodyne line,’ said the Castle, snippily. ‘Yours is to preserve its treasure.’

‘I’m doing that,’ said Franz. ‘It would just be nice to get some peace around here.’

‘So go and sleep in the tunnels like the lizard you are,’ said the Castle. ‘There, I’m done now.’

That hadn’t taken long. Presumably they could go back in now and check Gradok really was all right? He took a step towards the Castle as the other Jägers did the same, then realised he was about to fall in beside Vali and dropped back sharply. He no longer wanted to fight him but he didn’t want to talk to him either.

Inside they found Gradok running one had over the blank wall where the door to Euphrosynia’s room had been. ‘It’s okay,’ he said, dully. ‘It can put it back later.’

*

When Maxim returned several months later it was to find the area of town above the crypts flattened and people walking all over it with string and bits of paper. While the leaders of the search parties went to report to Gradok, Maxim went to Mamma Gkika’s.

‘Vot’s goink on?’ he asked as he ordered a beer at the bar.

Mamma grinned at him. ‘Dey iz building a cathedral.’

‘Ve need a cathedral?’ Religion in Mechanicsburg was somewhat vague. There were people who still worshipped the Dyne goddess, there were others who seemed to think that their afterlife would consist of going wherever their Heterodynes went. Christianity hadn’t caught on.

‘Iz a bet. Prince Vadim said he vould eat his hat if Gradok built a cathedral in Mechanicsburg.’

Maxim nodded. ‘Iz a nize hat?’

‘Verra nize. Hyu vill see, he iz stayink here for a vhile.’ She looked pensive. ‘Gradok haff been stayink vit him a lot, but now he iz supervising dis.’

‘Zo dot’s vy der Kestle is hokey vit it,’ Maxim said.

She raised a clawed finger to her lips. ‘Iz a leedle touchy lately. Dun’t get its attention.’

Maxim nodded and took his drink.

The next day he stopped by the site that would, presumably, become a cathedral. The Castle wasn’t helping, he realised, although it wasn’t hindering either. The ground was just behaving like ground and no bricks were shifting on their own at all.

Vadim and Gradok were sitting to one side of the site, a chess board between them, although for the moment there was a break in the game while Gradok checked some papers. Once they were done he turned back to the board, but they seemed to be talking more than playing. Vadim did, indeed, have a very nice hat; a deep blue tricorn with white feathers. Maxim wandered over, still looking at the people on the site — you could tell which ones had been brought in rather than being native by how nervous it made them when he walked past. Once he got within earshot he realised the boys were arguing, in a not very serious way.

‘That is _not_ how you play chess,’ Vadim said.

‘I told you, this is _Heterodyne_ chess,’ said Gradok. ‘You agreed to play.’

‘It’s not any kind of chess. You’re making up the rules as you go along!’

‘Well, yes, that’s the _point_. You can do it too. If you don’t like a rule just use your turn to declare it undone.’

Vadim threw up his hands in frustration. ‘You just declared all your pawns and only _your_ pawns to be able to move like queens. They’re now the most powerful pieces on the board. What kind of strategy is that?’

It was too good an opening for Maxim to ignore, and he paused by them, posing, with his claws held up. ‘Vun Heterodynes use in real life,’ he said.

Vadim looked at him and started laughing, hiding his mouth behind his hand. Gradok was smiling too and Maxim grinned back, glad of it.

‘Fair enough,’ said Vadim. ‘Maybe Heterodyne chess isn’t so bad.’ He sighed. ‘I’d probably have Jägers if I could.’

‘Hyu haff Smoke Knights,’ said Maxim, reassuringly. ‘Hy alvays thought dey vas preedy amazing.’

Vadim sighed. ‘They’re loyal to the family, not to me.’

‘So are the Jägers,’ said Gradok at the same time as Maxim said, ‘Zo iz ve,’ both sounding rather shocked.

‘I didn’t mean…’ Vadim waved a hand vaguely. ‘It’s different for you. The Storm King isn’t keeping a lid on things anymore and it’s all…starting to boil over.’ He bit his lip, for a moment looking both very young and much older than fourteen. ‘When I say they’re loyal to the family I mean they can be used against me.’

Gradok looked at him, mouth forming an “o” for a moment, and then squeezed his hand. ‘It will work both ways, if you need it to,’ he said quietly.

Maxim looked at him. ‘Vot?’

Gradok raised a finger to his lips and Maxim’s gaze flickered to the Castle building up above them. Something was going on. But it was something Gradok had well in hand and all Maxim needed to do was leave it alone. He nodded, and walked on.

*

The cathedral was bigger every time Maxim saw it. If he’d been there continuously it probably would have seemed slower, but returning after months he’d find it had acquired new layers of deep red stone, new walls and arches. When, after five years, the gargoyles started appearing he wasn’t quite sure what to think — the cathdral was done already if it was being decorated now. Not that the Heterodynes didn’t tend to decorate everything, and Gradok had always had a sense of style, but…it seemed like Gradok was reluctant to let go of building it and let it be done already. It was a distraction. But he needed one, didn’t he? They hadn’t found anything yet.

There was another reason, beyond lack of gargoyles, that the cathedral wasn’t done yet. ‘Hyu haff to haff a bishop,’ someone told him.

‘Huh. Does he haff to be villing?’ Maxim asked.

There was laughter from the other Jägers around him in the bar. ‘Ve got bets on dot.’

It was hard to imagine what a bishop would do in Mechanicsburg — not that Maxim was terribly sure what they did anywhere — but he didn’t think anyone was very interested in worship and still less in repenting. Maybe they’d be okay with having a nice building even if the town mostly ignored them?

In the end the bishop was willing. He was a stooped little old man inclined towards human sacrifice, which was regarded as an interesting quirk by those used to seeing prisoners become science experiments, and quite mad, which just meant he’d probably fit in. When he preached it tended to be about tentacled horrors from beyond the realms of sanity, which Maxim was quite sure wasn’t _normally_ part of Christian liturgy, but it did make the sermons rather popular.

‘He _is_ ordained,’ Gradok insisted to Vadim, the two of them watching as their bishop waved his hands around wildly, trying to illustrate the outline of something that lived in eight dimensions and ate shadows.

‘I know, although I don’t know _how_ he hasn’t been defrocked. But human sacrifice?’ Vadim protested.

‘We can spare a few prisoners,’ Gradok said, with a shrug.

Vadim looked away, face pale and shocked. ‘Sometimes I forget you’re a Heterodyne,’ he mumbled.

‘You shouldn’t,’ said Gradok. ‘My family…they meant everything to me.’

His voice was cracking slightly and Maxim moved away, not wanting to eavesdrop any further.

*

A few days later Vadim, apparently recovered from his shock, was ready to go through with his part of the bargain and Mechanicsburg, always ready to appreciate a show, had turned out to watch. A platform was set up in front of the cathedral with a small table on it covered in the fanciest cloth Gradok could find (it had little lace skulls around the hem) and with condiments set out in glass and gleaming silver. A white platter was placed in front of Vadim along with a very sharp knife and fork. He sat down and removed his hat with a flourish, placing it on the centre of the plate. Gradok, playing waiter with a grin twitching at his lips, stepped forward to offer him a cheese sauce, which was accepted and drizzled daintily over the hat. This was repeated with salt and pepper and then Gradok stepped back with a bow that involved flourishing his own hat.

Then Vadim cut off a chunk of hat and put it in his mouth. He didn’t try to chew before swallowing, and pulled a face as it went down. Bit by bit the hat vanished, with people betting on whether or not he’d finish it even as they watched. When he swallowed the last mouthful even those who had just lost their money cheered on principle.

Vadim stood up and bowed and then Gradok put a hand on his shoulder and murmured something before turning to the crowd. ‘Vadim and I are going to have a look at the cathedral now it’s officially complete. You can all carry on.’

The two boys disappeared through the cathedral doors and the crowd started to disperse. Some of the Jägers hung around, Maxim among them, as they didn’t really have anywhere they needed to go until they were sent back out on the search.

‘Get in there,’ the Castle said suddenly. ‘Find him.’

Obedience to the Castle was so ingrained that the Jägers had charged through the gate before thinking that Gradok probably hadn’t wanted them to. Even then it wasn’t enough to stop them, not only could the Castle get nasty if disobeyed but if it was ordering them in then Gradok might be in danger. His scent trail was clear and obvious, leading down into the crypts and through a passage and then to a door that was, most decidedly, locked.

They paused there, leaning over each other to get close to the door, listening. There was no sound from inside, it was possible someone was in there staying absolutely quiet and not moving, but why would Gradok be doing that?

‘Vun. Two,’ someone said and everyone joined in for, ‘Three.’ The threw themselves at the door shoulders first in a crowd, landing tumbled, bewildered and slightly indignant on the floor when the door failed to give. There was a panicky feeling growing. The room they were trying to get into was empty, and Gradok couldn’t have disappeared, but Euphrosynia had…

‘Vait!’ someone snapped. Dimo, Maxim recognised his voice. ‘Listen.’

There were sounds from inside the room now, two pairs of footsteps across the floor, and then Gradok pulled the door open and stopped in bewilderment at the group of Jägers all over the floor. ‘What are you doing in here?’ he asked.

‘Der Kestle said to get to hyu,’ someone answered.

Gradok closed his eyes, mouth pinching closed. ‘Of course it did.’

‘Hyu ver _gone_.’ That in half a dozen voices and variations, Jägers trying to push closer to smell Gradok.

He let them. ‘I’m here, I’m fine,’ he said.

Vadim was watching them with some puzzlement. ‘Were they worried?’

‘Of course. If I’d known the Castle was going to send them in I wouldn’t have —’ he cut himself off and shook his head. ‘Come on, let’s go and find somewhere to sit. Somewhere visible.’

They did, playing chess in the square again, and if the Jägers spent rather a lot of the afternoon watching them then Gradok, at least, had expected it.

*

Gradok was an old man when the searching stopped, and Euphrosynia would have been over a hundred. Finally he had to admit that even if his sister had been taken alive she was almost certainly dead now, and he called them home. The Doom Bell was ringing for her when they returned and Maxim flinched at it as if he was still the human he hadn’t been in a long time, now.

That night at Mamma Gkika’s the mood was — not solemn, a large number of Jägers in one place and solemnity didn’t quite work, but perhaps wistful. Fane and Vali were sitting together, but Maxim didn’t try to join them and they didn’t seem to notice him. He found a table in a corner and listened to the muted buzz of conversation, not sure whether he wanted to be alone or not, but not feeling like looking for company anyway.

It came as a surprise when Mamma Gkika stopped by his table, more so when she tipped his chin up with a rouged claw and sighed. ‘Look at hyu. A century old and hyu spent most of it mourning already.’

‘I vas _searchink_.’ The words were sharp, bitten off.

‘Und how long since hyu last expected to find her?’

A long time. At some point the seesawing between hope and disappointment had just become resignation, a need to fulfil his duty while he waited for permission to stop hoping altogether. He pulled away. ‘Leaf me alone.’

‘Ve all lose de Heterodyne dot made us, Sveethot. Dot’s vot beink immortal means.’

‘Hy know dot.’ The memory of Ognian crying for Clemethius. ‘Hy know.’

‘It’s not as if anyvun gave op on her.’

‘Dis iz a funeral. Hy’m allowed to grieve.’

‘Und tomorrow?’ He glared at her and she huffed out a soft breath. ‘Yah, dot’s vot I thought.’

‘It’s not as if Hy ken keep looking. There’s novhere left.’ He blinked, the bar gone hazy and watery. ‘Valois iz dead. Gradok vill die.’ Those who had loved her and searched most persistently. ‘Novun but us vill remember her. I’ve heard der _stories_.’ Stories that cast her as the sweet ingenue who accidentally brought down the Empire with her tragic love for the Storm King. She should have been remembered as more than that.

‘Remember then,’ said Gkika. ‘Ve remember better den anyvun. But hyu don’t haff to keep searching to remember.’

If he closed his eyes he could see her in her pretty dress, canvas apron with bulging pockets over the top of it. Pretty, sly, fearless, merciless. As wonderful and monstrous as any Heterodyne. ‘Yah.’ There were new Heterodynes now, Gradok’s grandchildren, and he would serve them and accept the end of this search. He had no choice in that. But she would always be the one he thought of as his. ‘Hy vill remember.’


	13. Epilogue

‘Use hyu noses,’ Dimo ordered and they did, trying to find the scent he had caught. The smells of the town; people, grass, fresh bread from a baker’s shop, the horses that came with the circus. Heterodyne. Maxim blinked his eyes open, trying to follow it, murmuring along with the other two as they did the same, and _there_. She was turned away, talking to one of the other circus folk. She didn’t look like Euphrosynia, which was a ridiculous thought — two hundred years and not a direct descendent and it wasn’t like any of the Heterodynes resembled each other that strongly to begin with. But until now Euphrosynia was the only girl.

Her reaction when she noticed them was dismay. Because they were there or because they were being hanged? Maxim stared, drinking her in, her movements, her reactions. The way wide eyed shock gave way to a more subdued concern — uncertain, innocent in a way Euphrosynia had never been. Not sure whether to be afraid of them or for them, not _theirs_ and not yet aware they were already hers. The Sergeant butting in gave her the impetus to decide that they were not her concern, to accept that they were the monsters the townsfolk said, and their own staring pushed her into moving away. They stayed silent, their position giving them a front row seat to her fortune telling, her show (she had Lucrezia’s voice run through with the dynamics of a Heterodyne, all charisma and madness when she was on stage) and her confrontation with Othar afterwards.

“I _can’t_ survive as a Heterodyne. I can’t even survive as a _Spark_. So I _won’t_. I’m _done_ with all of that. _Finished._ ’

Ognian whined sharp and high in the back of his throat. Maxim turned away from where he’d been staring at the tent as if he might be able to see through it if he tried hard enough (or as if she might vanish if he stopped looking). She didn’t want them, then.

Füst’s roar split the air and Maxim’s head snapped up, _we’re in so much trouble_ running through his head before he was sure whether he was thinking they’d be in trouble with Jenka or with their Heterodyne for Jenka attacking people she was with. Not that Jenka was really trying to attack; she knew how precarious the situation was, that people would just shoot them if they thought they had nothing to lose. Jenka was trying to convince them that they did have something to lose, that as long as they freed her subordinates she would leave them alive.

The sharp fizzle and zap of a death ray caught their ears and white after images left them blinking. The Heterodyne was standing there, gun still held up, her own eyes as dazzled as theirs for the one moment it took to lose Jenka completely. Then Jenka was holding her, furious now, crunching the death ray underfoot and bending one finger back. The air smelled of blood and smoke, the Heterodyne scent was almost lost beneath it even to Maxim who knew what he was trying to smell, and Jenka was wearing her scarf. Othar kicked Jenka away from the Heterodyne, but her expression said she knew Othar wasn’t an ally, then a cat leapt at Füst, yelled at her to run, and she turned to run blindly, running _towards_ them to fetch up almost against their legs and once again stare up at them in dismay.

‘Problems?’ asked Dimo.

Maxim smiled down at her, satisfaction curving his lips. She was a strong Spark but not a warrior, she’d lost her weapon after one shot, she couldn’t take on Jenka alone. She didn’t want them, but right now she needed them.

Her spine stiffened and her eyes narrowed at them, fear subsumed by a mix of calculation and command. ‘Someone’s attacking the town. I’ll cut you down. You get her _out_ of here before you escape.’

‘Yes.’ Maxim smiled at her. The right orders, to the point, getting all of them out of this safely. ‘Good vun.’

‘And you’ll leave the townspeople _alone_.’

‘Yes…’ said Ognian, fierce and approving as she hemmed them in. ‘Schmott girl.’

‘ _Swear_. Swear on your _loyalty_ to the house of _Heterodyne_.’

‘Heh,’ said Dimo, responding to the dodge that was. Demanding they swear to the house, not to her, even though she knew exactly what she was asking and why she could ask it. ‘Ve so svear — _Mistress_.’

‘I’d better be right about you.’ But even as she said it she was shearing the ropes. Maxim dropped, landing on his feet, looking around for his hat and his weapon already.

‘Too late to vorry about dot _now_ , Sveethot,’ Dimo shouted cheerfully as his own feet hit the ground.

By the time they’d got their wrists untied and grabbed their hats and weapons, Jenka looked like she was about to strangle Othar. Maxim really wished he could let her — Othar wasn’t actually one of the townspeople, right? — but only the Castle got to play with orders like that and it wasn’t as if Maxim wanted to take his cues from that pile of rubble anyway. He grinned. They already knew the square was a good place for a show and this time he got to play the hero. The look on Jenka’s face when he stepped forward and shouted his line was _priceless_.

Later, after they’d chased Jenka into the woods and lost her and found her again, they told her about the Heterodyne they’d found. They were still sharp and giddy with joy, ready to take on the whole world to keep her. She was real, they’d done it, they’d _found_ her. But Jenka was distant, wanting instructions, seeming unsure and not sharing their happiness. ‘Keep her alive.’ As if they wouldn’t!

*

For a few weeks they followed the circus from a slight distance, watching their Heterodyne when she emerged to do chores or rehearse. Or train, which was a surprise. She was being trained by a very enthusiastic green haired girl and said training seemed to involve a lot of running around in a very skimpy costume, a view all three of them appreciated. The warrior training shouldn’t really have been a surprise; most Heterodynes learned to fight after all. Euphrosynia never had, prefering to rely on her bodyguards and keep them close, but… Maxim shook his head. It was a good thing this Heterodyne was learning to fight.

All the same they shadowed them closely when the green haired girl — Zeetha — arranged for them to be left behind in the wilderness. So it wasn’t until the girls caught up with the caravan, the Jägers lurking a little behind, that they realised something was wrong. The people were worried. The Jägers crept closer, although not as close as they would have liked. The open clearing right before the bridge left little in the way of cover.

A sudden furore made them prick up their ears, the scouts had been spotted returning. Caravans were being turned, weapons were being pulled out. Then the smell hit them. Almost human, not quite, unhealthy, sickly sweet undertones. Something about it was almost familiar, not precisely frightening but sending prickles down Maxim’s spine all the same. Agatha stepped out, holding something that was almost certainly a death ray, and ran to join the others on the bridge. Ognian growled softly, pulling out his weapon. Maxim caught him with a claw at the back of his collar and tilted his head towards Dimo, who shook his head in response but pulled out a knife all the same. Maxim nodded and let go of Ognian to draw his own sword. She wouldn’t want anyone to know she was being followed by Jägers, they’d intervene only if her life was in danger. Which meant waiting until they could see the threat.

There was tense conversation on the bridge, the cat was saying something, gesturing. Agatha nodded and lifted the death ray, firing it into the shadows and revealing white creatures, all ribs, stretched and wrong looking. If they’d been human once their transformation had done nothing good for them. There were dozens of them, clinging under the bridge, they didn’t look too tough individually but the circus was about to get overwhelmed. The three Jägers looked at each other and Dimo nodded. They sprang forward, bounding up onto the nearest caravan.

‘Perhaps we die. But we fight to give the wagons time to get away,’ Zeetha was saying grimly.

The Jägers laughed, causing heads to turn towards them. Maxim grinned down at them, full of fierce joy. They had someone to protect and they were going to _fight_.

‘Now vot’s de fun of _dot_?’ Ognian called down. The three Jägers launched themselves downward, moving perfectly together. ‘ _Ve_ fights to _keel!_ ’

They threw themselves into it, dispatching monsters swiftly. It wasn’t difficult, the monsters were single-minded but not particularly tough and they had no strategy at all. Maxim joined Ognian in shouting encouragement to the humans, who were starting to realise how easy to kill these enemies were and get into the fight properly. Master Payne shouted for people not to shoot _them_ , which was thoughtful of him. The three Jägers fell into a pattern easily, switching off regularly on who stayed near Agatha and who killed off monsters advancing too far from the gorge. They were being pushed back, though; however easy the monsters were to kill they kept coming.

Maxim was falling into his place by Agatha when he heard someone say something about getting cut off and then Agatha gasped, ‘Lars!’ He looked up at the pain in her voice. She must mean one of the scouts, they were good fighters and had been having their own battle on the bridge — oh, maybe that _was_ a bit much for two humans.

‘Ho, hyu vant him?’ He smiled at her. Anything she wanted. ‘Ve go _get_ him!’ He raised his voice, yelling for Ognian and Dimo. ‘To de _bridge!_ ’

They charged onto the bridge, knocking monsters out of their way, to find the humans fighting and arguing at the same time. They were, as Maxim told them slightly giddily, funny guys. He didn’t have time to say anything else because the order, ‘CLEAR THE BRIDGE!’ rang out in full command voice and if Maxim knew anything about Heterodynes it was that you shouldn’t stay _anywhere_ they’d just told you to clear. He and Dimo grabbed a human each and Ognian grabbed a horse and they ran, grinning widely, making it off the bridge before the command to ‘Get _down!_ ’ was followed by a properly spectacular explosion.

Afterwards — and after Ognian had neatly solved the problem of Lars being hysterical by knocking him out — they heard the whole story. Agatha demonstrated she took after Bill and Barry, which would normally mean boring but under the circumstances was almost anything but. While the circus folk went about arguing her out of it the Jägers slipped out of sight to have their own whispered conversation.

‘Dis gun happen often?’ Maxim asked.

Dimo shrugged, claws spread. ‘No goot if ve keep showing op out ov novhere.’

‘Yah. Suspicious,’ Ognian agreed. ‘Mebbe ve ken stay?’

Maxim thought about that and nodded. ‘Pipple join de circus, yah?’

‘Ve ken try,’ said Dimo. He leant back against the caravan. ‘Effen if dey let uz…ve better stay sottle.’

Maxim nodded. People didn’t like Jägers, keeping their distance would both make it more likely the circus wouldn’t try to drive them out and keep them safe if anyone got any other ideas about ways to remove them. Travelling outside the pack and without the protection of either a Heterodyne or the Baron was an education in things that could happen to Jägers. The circus might be grateful now, and they’d seemed nice enough to be bothered by Jägers being left to hang, but no point taking chances.

The conversation between the circus folk seemed to be winding down, with Agatha having been thoroughly outvoted. Ognian nodded to the other two, ‘Hokay. Here goes.’

*

Even after being accepted they travelled more alongside the circus than with it. They didn’t hide their presence now and sometimes drifted in for food or to stumble through conversations that usually left both sides puzzled. Mostly they killed off any monsters that got too close and watched over Agatha, much as they had done before.

Agatha’s training was going well and she was starting to show more interest in it, or at least in where it might be going, instead of treating it as a chore. Although she wasn’t precisely enthusiastic about endless runs and one morning finally asked, ‘When do I get to learn to use a sword?’

‘You’re not ready to even touch a Quata’ara yet,’ Zeetha answered.

Agatha sighed and picked up the anvil she was supposed to be carrying around the camp. Zeetha had her back to where the Jägers were watching from, but Agatha must have seen some kind of disappointment in her expression because she gave her a sardonic look. ‘Oh wait. Let me guess. This was where I was supposed to insist you let me wield a Quata’ara, even though you, my Kolee, have told me I’m not ready. Possibly I’m supposed to harbor some day-dream that I have a magical affinity for these swords, which will allow me to side-step all this tedious training.

‘No doubt this would have led to some hilarious, but painful lesson reaffirming that I am, in fact, not yet ready to touch the swords. I’ll skip that, if I may.’

Whatever Agatha saw in Zeetha’s expression after that was enough for her to swallow her next words. With a wide eyed look she snatched up the anvil and fled. Maxim winced and when he looked at Dimo his ears were flattened. Zeetha frightening Agatha into early morning runs was nothing new, but this was a different kind of fear and Zeetha was acting out of real anger.

‘Dot’s not goot,’ Ognian said.

‘Ve follow,’ Dimo told them.

They did follow, watching Agatha as closely as they could, making sure one of them was always close to her, as she became more and more exhausted and miserable. Maxim met her eyes as she paused for a moment, gasping sharply for breath. They couldn’t interfere, her life wasn’t in danger, it would give too much away for them to be seen to care and she didn’t want that. If she wanted that she could _ask_ , they were staying close, he was right _there_. Agatha looked away and stumbled back into a run.

He looked ahead to see Dimo waiting for her a little further on. She wavered before she could reach him, falling forward, and Dimo darted over to catch her and set her very gently back on her feet. He caught Maxim’s eyes and nodded to him, Ognian was further along still and they could leave Agatha to him for a moment. Maxim sighed in relief. ‘Ve stopping dis?’ he asked.

‘Yez,’ said Dimo, word sharp and bitten off.

When Zeetha ran around the same corner Agatha had, eyes still bright with anger, she found the two of them staring at her. Dimo stepped forward. ‘Hyu iz hurting Meez Agatha,’ he said.

‘She’s _my_ zumil,’ Zeetha retorted.

‘Hyu tink hurting her meks hyu a good teacher?’ Maxim asked, showing his teeth.

Dimo put a claw on her arm. ‘Hyu tell her dot she is released for de day. Und den ve…tok.’

She glared back at them defiantly, not intimidated, but willing to turn her anger on them instead of Agatha. ‘Fine. I’ll tell her and then we can _talk_ about why it’s any of your business.’

She marched straight back after sending Agatha away, Ognian following her, and let the three of them herd her away from the caravans into a clearing. Now that Agatha was resting, hopefully, Maxim felt a bit more sympathy for her. She was the easiest person in the camp to understand in many ways. A warrior to the core, but barely more than a child herself. (He had been younger than that when he took the Jägerdraught. Euphrosynia had been younger still when she gave it to him. Perhaps there was no such thing as too young to take shaping another person’s life into your hands.)

‘Sit down,’ Dimo said. Zeetha did, back straight and hands resting on her knees, still scowling. The Jägers sat in a triangle around her, slouching.

Ognian tilted his head at her. ‘Vot vas dot about?’

‘We all pick up the sword before we’re ready! What makes _her_ so special?’ The girl was angry, hurt and miserable, and there were too many answers to that, none of them relevant. But she needed something.

‘Vaz not her dream,’ Maxim offered.

‘Yah,’ Ognian chimed in, picking up where his thoughts were going. ‘Sparks blow demselves up all der time.’

‘But not over a nize weapon,’ Dimo finished, with a nod to Zeetha’s sword.

Zeetha’s shoulders relaxed slightly out of her defensive posture. ‘Back home even the Sparks wanted to be warriors.’ None of them pointed out that things were different here; she already knew that. She was a long way from home, from the world she had grown up in and which made sense to her, looking desparately for a way back. Agatha had been able to offer a little hope, but no more than that. They could offer nothing but sympathy. ‘I shouldn’t have…’ Zeetha’s face crumpled again, this time into less angry lines.

‘Vill be okeh,’ Ognian said, patting her shoulder.

‘Tok to her,’ Maxim suggested. ‘Tell her dot.’

Zeetha nodded. ‘Yeah, I should,’ she mumbled. She stood up, brushing back her hair, and strode towards the edge of the clearing.

‘Sveethot?’ Dimo called after her. ‘Iz not her dream, but she needs to know.’ He didn’t thank her, that would have given too much away. She nodded curtly, brow furrowed, before walking out of the clearing.

With her gone Maxim dug the claws of his left hand into the ground, raking furrows through the leaf litter there. ‘Vould be easier if _ve_ could tok to her.’

‘She din’t say not to,’ Ognian said.

Dimo frowned at him. ‘She is hidink. She dun’t vant uz making it harder.’

Maxim snorted, jabbing harder at the ground. ‘She dun’t _like_ uz.’

‘She iz our Heterodyne,’ said Ognian.

‘That dun’t mean she ken’t leave uz behind,’ Maxim snapped.

‘She ken’t yet, anyvay,’ said Dimo levelly. ‘Ve haff orders.’

‘So long as ve dun’t come to her attenshun enough for her to countermand dem,’ Maxim answered.

Ognian looked at him wide eyed. ‘Vould she?’

Maxim shrugged. ‘Mebbe dot’s vy Jenka vanted uz to jest keep her alive. Vitout getting close.’

‘Und ve is keeping her alive jest fine,’ said Dimo, standing up. ‘Zo let’s carry on vit dot and go patrol.’

Ognian jumped up, apparently distracted, and Maxim followed more slowly. She hadn’t objected to their presence yet, but she hadn’t tried to talk to them either. He wondered how long this balance could last.

*

Spring became summer and things continued as they had been. Agatha and Zeetha had made up almost instantly and were now closer than ever. Something was possibly going on between Agatha and Lars, but no one seemed sure of what, least of all Agatha or Lars. Sturmhalten was getting closer every day.

‘Ve iz going to reach Mechanicsburg before ve hear from Jenka,’ Maxim said to the other two. ‘Hyu know ve ken’t follow her in.’

‘Vorry about dot vhen ve get there,’ Dimo answered.

Maxim did his best with that and things were going well enough in the present that there didn’t seem to be anything more immediate that needed worrying about. At least until one day, after the smell of food (which turned out to be glue, but they hadn’t let that stop them) had drawn him and Ognian in for yet another awkward conversation, music started playing. It was beautiful and also…familiar, in a way that had nothing to do with having heard it before. They drifted over to find most of the circus standing, enraptured, around Agatha playing the silverodeon.

‘Kom vit me,’ Dimo said, from behind them, as they stood on the edge of the crowd. They followed him outside the ring of caravans that marked the edge of the circus. ‘Hy jest had an interesting conversation mit Meester Payne,’ he said. Behind them the music stopped. ‘Found out vy he let uz join der circus.’ A soft chime sounded into the silence. ‘Turns out dey got a Muse.’

‘Vat?’ It had been a long time since Maxim even thought about the Muses. Otilia was long gone, probably buried by the Castle, and he’d only met the others once. They’d said something about caravans then, hadn’t they? He frowned, it was too long ago and he hadn’t been listening anyway. ‘Vhich?’

‘Moxana. Hyu know vhich dot is?’

Maxim shook his head.

‘Yah, me neither. Dey used to haff two, but vun ov dem got took by der Prince ov Sturmhalten. Dey is afraid Moxana vill be too,’ said Dimo. ‘Dey vant uz to dress op as Wulfenbach Jägers. Caravans vit Jägers get sent through _fast_.’

Ognian grinned, teeth flashing in the dark. ‘Sounds like fon.’

‘But ve gots to ask,’ Dimo said, nodding towards Agatha’s, currently dark, caravan.

Maxim swallowed. They hadn’t pushed it until now. She hadn’t technically given them orders, they hadn’t technically obeyed her. There had been a bargain, their freedom for an oath sworn on their loyalty to the house of Heterodyne. There had been them choosing to help without orders or acknowledgement. They knew and she knew, but would she be willing to admit to that? What would happen to them if she didn’t? If she chose what she’d claimed to want, a life as neither a Spark nor a Heterodyne?

They waited until the light in Agatha’s caravan went on and then walked back into the circus and through her door. She was terrorising a cute little clank with a large screwdriver, which at least answered the question of her living as a Spark.

‘Ve must tok,’ Dimo told her.

She put the clank down and looked at them, annoyed at being interrupted. ‘You’ve been avoiding me ever since you joined up, but now we must talk? Why? What’s happened?’

They hadn’t been avoiding her — well, they had, but only because she’d seemed to want them to. Had she been offended? Maxim attempted his most charming grin and swept his hair back, leaning in towards her. ‘Who vouldn’t vants to tok to a preety gurl like hyu?’

‘Maxim! No!’ said Dimo, alarmed. ‘She iz still in de madness place! She’ll —’

What she actually did was knock off Maxim’s hat. Compared to what a Heterodyne in the Madness Place could do to someone who displeased them it was very mild, and if Maxim hadn’t already been on edge he might not have reacted by raising his claws and snarling at her, ‘Dot vas my _hat!_ ’

Agatha responded with icy fury. ‘What. Do. You. Want.’

It was enough to stop him dead. In a way it was reassuring; she wasn’t scared of him, she was taking charge, and an angry Heterodyne acting like a Heterodyne was something he knew how to respond to. He smiled and dropped gracefully to one knee, hand pressed to his chest. ‘Forgiff me…Mistress.’

‘And that’s quite enough of that,’ she said firmly. ‘These people do not know who I am.’

Maxim obediently got to his feet, picking up his hat as he did so. ‘Ve understand, Lady.’

‘Oh?’ she said skeptically. So they told her. They recounted all that they’d managed to learn of what she was running from and where she was going, then what they knew about the Muse and that Master Payne had a plan but they needed her permission to help.

‘You all seem remarkably on top of this,’ she said. ‘Are you sure you’re Jägerkin?’

Dimo chuckled. ‘Dot iz a goot qvestion. Sometimes ve vonder.’ As far as Maxim was concerned it was a _baffling_ question. What else would they be? And Dimo wasn’t helping make it make any more sense. ‘Haff all dose guys mit der Baron gone soft offer der years? Or haff ve become…sharper because ve leaf der group und haff to learn how to tink better?’ Maybe that made sense. Maxim knew for a fact that there were other Jägers cleverer than him, but living outside the pack had made him…if not sharper then certainly warier. You couldn’t trust that your superiors knew what was going on (although he still tended to trust that Dimo knew what was going on), you had to think for yourself because there was no one to think for you. ‘Hy tink mebbe both,’ Dimo concluded.

‘Why did you leave the group?’ She put a hand on Dimo’s shoulder. Now that she was out of the Madness Place her gaze was sympathetic, but Maxim was still taken aback. She didn’t _know?_ How could she not know? What did she think they were doing here? Why did she think they’d been apart from the pack? Why did she think they’d followed her? She knew, at least, that they were loyal to the Heterodynes, she had trusted in that. But knowing that how could she miss the rest?

‘It vos — iz — de hardest ting ever for a Jäger to do,’ said Dimo, solemnly. ‘But it _haff_ to be done.’

Maxim nodded and started talking, telling her that when the Baron had offered employment they’d had to take it, that they’d needed his protection. He didn’t tell her about the slow realisation that surviving the Other war had been the easy part. Mechanicsburg had been able to shut its gates and man its guns against wasps and revenants, but afterwards, when those who still had the means started to spread, to both rebuild and attack those less fortunate, everyone had had their eyes on Mechanicsburg. Everyone had known the Jägers had survived, had been starting to think in terms of attacking before the Jägers attacked them. The Castle was down, the dormant torchmen could offer no protection against attack from the air, and by the time they got the offer they’d been forced to realise how vulnerable their once impregnable town was; how vulnerable they were making it.

He told her that they’d had to look for Heterodynes and that they’d suspected it wouldn’t be a high priority for the Baron, but not that it _would_ have been if Klaus had had any hope that Bill or Barry were still alive. He remembered Klaus laughing, towelling himself off after a sparring session with the Jägerkin, delighted at finding partners he didn’t have to worry about hurting. Not one of the pack, but someone else who loved their Heterodynes, a bond that still echoed now. The Jägers had gone with him for reasons beyond the practical.

Dimo took over, saying bluntly that it had been a suicide mission, that they’d taken it knowing all the Heterodynes were gone and that they would never be able to return to the group. Maxim thought of volunteering, the feeling that in a way he ought to; that hopeless searches for lost Heterodynes were his problem, or at least something he could spare someone else. Half the volunteers had broken down as soon as the airships were out of sight. Breaking up into smaller groups had been even worse, being left adrift without the comforting presence of other Jägers all around him. Nor did Dimo say that for some of the other volunteers it had already proved a suicide mission.

Ognian took his turn with a grin, in contrast to Dimo’s folded ears and grim expression, explaining that because of them the Jägerkin could stay with the Baron and be safe while still being able to say they had not abandoned their masters. ‘Und now here hyu show op,’ he added, ‘und spoil all our plenz!’ His face fell and he blinked as it started to hit him, after their explanation of why they couldn’t return, what had changed. Maxim was starting to realise too — all he’d thought of since finding her was following her, protecting her, but her presence meant more than that. ‘’Cause now ve gets to go beck,’ Ognian said, sniffling, his words echoing Maxim’s thoughts. ‘Und I neffer — I neffer thot —’ He threw himself forward suddenly, awkwardly, winding up kneeling with his arms around Agatha’s waist, his head buried against her neck. ‘Ve haff missed hyu,' he choked out. 'Please, please be real!’

Agatha wrapped her arms around him, one hand cupping the back of his head. ‘Shh,’ she said gently. ‘I…I _am_.’

It was a promise, not just that she was real but that she cared that she was real. That she wouldn’t deny her nature as a Heterodyne or deny _them_. Maxim watched, smiling, as Ognian was comforted. They were hers and now she was willing to be theirs.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Tony Stark and the Heterodyne Legacy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/701568) by [Jamoche](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jamoche/pseuds/Jamoche)




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